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COLONIAL COSTUMES 




A DIGNITARY IN THE I8TH CENT. AN OFFICER IN THE REVOLUTION 

K GENTLEMAN A GENTLEMAN ABOUT THE TIME 

^ MERCHANT •' "^ THE REVOLUTION 



^ GENTLEMAN ABOUT THE TIMF 

0" THE REVOLUTION 
^ COLONIAL GOVERNOR IN THE 18TM CEN 



THE HOUSEHOLD HISTORY OF 



THE UNITED STATES 



AND ITS PEOPLE 



FOR TOUNG JMERICJNS 



BY 



EDWARD EGGLESTON 




COLONIAL COURT-HOUSE 



NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1901 



THE LIBRARY 
CONGRESS, 

Two CoH.ts Received 

lUN. 13 1901 

COPVHIGNT ENTRY 

^ASS <^XXc. No. 
COPY G. 



APPLETON AND 'COMPANY. 



PREFACE 



The present work is meant, in the first instance, for the 
young— not alone for boys and girls, but for young men and 
women who have yet to make themselves familiar with the 
more important features of their country's history. By a book 
for the young is meant one in which the author studies to 
make his statements clear and explicit, in which curious and 
picturesque details are inserted, and in which the writer does 
not neglect such anecdotes as lend the charm of a human and 
personal interest to the broader facts of the nation's story. 
That history is often tiresome to the young is not so much 
the fault of history as of a false method of writing by which 
one contrives to relate events without sympathy or imagina- 
tion, without narrative connection or animation. The attempt 
to master vague and general records of kiln-dried facts is 
certain to beget in the ordinary reader a repulsion from the 
study of history— one of the very most important of all studies 
for its widening influence on general culture. 

As the traits which render an historic narrative attractive 
to the young are likely to make it interesting to older people, 
I do not despair of finding readers beyond the special class 
for which this book is prepared. There are intelligent people, 
no longer young, may be, who will think none the worse of 



my book that it strives to make the causes and results of 
public events clear, and to trace with simplicity our present 
institutions from their springs downward, that it relates curious 
details of life and manners, and now and then turns aside to 
tell an incident illustrative of character, or dwells with a little 
momentary fondness on the exploits of a Benjamin Church, 
the heroism of a Nathaniel Bacon, and the adventures of a 
Daniel Boone. 

I know of no surer way of making life tedious to a reader 
than the method of considering the early history of the United 
States as the history of thirteen petty communities and their 
intestine squabbles. It is, of course, indispensable that one shall 
give an account of the origin of each of the thirteen colonies, 
but for the rest I have preferred to consider the country as a 
whole, and the people before and after the Revolution as 
essentially one, omitting particulars which are neither interest- 
ing nor instructive. Two classes of facts have especially 
claimed attention : First, those events, great or small, which 
have exerted an influence on the general current of our history 
or modified our institutions. These must be understood, in 
order to keep in mind that chain of causes and effects which 
makes history reasonable and intelligible. The second class 
includes those facts which make the individual traits of great 
men vivid to us, and, more important still, those which enable 
us to understand the character and modes of life of the body 
of the people in times different from our own. The old his- 
torians took note of nobody but princes, courtiers, and generals. 
But history, like everything else, has become more democratic 



PREFACE. y 

in these modern days, and the real hero of the historian's story 
to-day is the community itself. " We need a history of lire- 
sides," said Daniel Webster. It would be specially unfortunate 
if the writer on the history of a repubHc like ours should be 
so taken up with what Sir Walter Scott would call " the big 
bow-wow " of public events as to neglect the story of the 
evolution of a great people. 

As its title indicates, this is a " household edition." The 
school edition of the book has already appeared, and the 
instantaneous favor it has met with, not only as a text-book, 
but also as a book for general use, encouraged the preparation 
of the present edition. The omission of a hundred pages of 
questions and other machinery for teaching has enabled the 
writer to greatly enlarge the text by incorporating many 
interesting facts which could not be compressed into the 
limits of a school edition. To adapt the work to the pur- 
poses of the general reader, the text has been rearranged and 
in many parts rewritten. 

Of course, I am aware that ore of the very chief attrac- 
tions of the book is due to the liberality with which the 
publishers have availed themselves of so many of the resources 
of the modern art of illustration to enhance its value. The 
pictures represent the work of many of the best designers and 
engravers of our time. A very considerable body of knowl- 
edge regarding the history of civilization may be acquired from 
the illustrations of costume, armor, inventions, implements, sea 
and river craft, vehicles, and of manners generally. The 
drawings have been mostly made under the personal super- 



vision of the writer, and have required no less tliought and 
care than the text itself. Many of these designs are founded 
on rare prints, and others are from ancient original drawings 
not before engraved, while a few have been made from written 
descriptions of contemporary writers. Mr. John A. Fraser has 
had charge of the book on its artistic side, and the illustrations 
have been made under his direction. For assistance in pro- 
curing illustrations I am indebted to the kindness of several 
friends, and especially to Justin Winsor, LL. D., Librarian of 
Harvard University ; Major J. W. Powell, of the U. S. Geo- 
logical Survey ; and Prof. G. Brown Goode, of the Smithsonian 
Institution. Special acknowledgment is likewise due to the 
Century Company for favors in this matter. 

The main purpose in making so great a number of small 
maps has been to preserve the utmost simplicity. A crowded 
map is a ve.\ation to the brain and e3-e. In most cases a 
map for historical illustration should be a diagram of the fact 
under consideration, showing no names or details not necessary 
to the comprehension of that fact. Not only is the reader 
saved from much needless toil by this plan, but maps thus 
arranged serve the double purpose of elucidating the narrative 
and impressing it on the memory at the same time by giving 
it form to the eye. Each little map becomes a local diagram 
of some historical fact, and the form of the map will remain 
in the memory inseparably associated with the event to which 
it belongs — a geographical body to an historical soul. 

This smaller history by its earlier issue reaps a benefit 
from many laborious years of investigation for a larger work 



yet far from ready for publication, and some facts of consider- 
able importance first see the light in these pages. Statements 
in this narrative which seem novel and different from those 
hitherto accepted are based upon a personal study of original 
authorities, and in many cases are the result of an examination 
of ancient manuscripts in the British Public Record Office, the 
British Museum, the Library of Congress, and some other 
collections, public and private. 

It is impossible, however, to write a book covering the 
whole period of the history of the United States without incur- 
ring obligations to a great multitude of other writers and 
investigators. I owe much to the several writers in Mr. 
Winsor's " Narrative and Critical History of America," to Mr. 
Parkman's various works relating to the conflicts between the 
English and French colonies, and to Mr. Schouler's " History 
of the United States under the Constitution." I am also 
indebted to Mr. Bancroft, to Mr. Lossing, and to Mr. Mc- 
Master. Nor ought I to omit Ripley's '• Mexican War " or 
Dodge's " Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War." For the rest 
I must crave indulgence. It would be impossible to enu- 
merate here or even to recall all the writers on special 
subjects to whom I have referred. 

One word is due in regard to the treatment of recent events. 
Occurrences of our own time do not properly belong to his- 
tory, nor can a dispassionate and historical judgment be formed 
regarding the debates and conflicts in which living men have 
borne a part. I have, therefore, treated the period from about 
1850 by a method different from that employed in giving an 



vni 



PREFACE. 



account of earlier times, contenting myself with a narrative 
of the events, and not venturing on premature judgments. 
We who were in some sense victims of the passions of the 
civil-war period are not the best judges of questions between 
the participants. Moreover, I have desired that this little book, 
which will be read largely by the young, may contribute to 
bring about that oneness of sentiment in which lies the onlj' 
hope for national union and prosperity. The true work of 
patriotism in this time is conciliation and the consolidation of 
our national life. 

Edward Eggleston. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAGE 

How Columbus discovered America i 

Illustrations : The ships of Columbus ; Head-piece ; Prow of ancient war-ship ; 
Sailor ; Columbus ; Ferdinand and Isabella ; Stem of ancient war-ship ; Map, World 
as known when CoUtnibtis sailed. 

CHAPTER n. 
Other Discoveries in" America 8 

Illustrations: Americus; Cabot at Mecca; Henr)' VII; Indian needles for 
making nets ; Indian trap ; "A great man of that time " ; Caught in an Indian trap ; 
Map, Voyages of Columbus, Magellan, and Da Ga7na \ Magellan ; Spanish explorer. 

CHAPTER HI. 

Sir Walter Ralegh tries to settle a Colony in America . 14 

Illustrations: Sir Walter Ralegh; Queen Elizabeth; Map, Roanoke Island; Sir 
Francis Drake ; Ralegh on fire ; Indian pipes. 

CHAPTER IV. 
How Jamestown was settled 20 

Illustrations : James I ; A merchant of the V'irginia Company ; Present appear- 
ance of Jamestown ; The night-watch ; Captain John Smith ; Soldier with matchlock- 
gun ; Map, Jamestovjn and Roanoke Island. 

CHAPTER V. 
The Starving Time, and what followed 26 

Illustr.\tions : Deliverance of Jamestown ; Lord De la Warr ; Pocahontas; Com- 
mon people in the seventeenth century. 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Gre.\t Charter of Virginia, and the First Massacre by 

THE Indians 32 

Illustrations : English countryman ; countrywoman ; " Jack of the Feather " ; The 
warning. 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Coming of the Pilgrims 37 

Illustrations : Ship ; Puritan man ; Puritan woman ; Pilgrim farewell at Delft 
Haven; Map, Plymouth and jfamestoivn ; Map, Vicinity o/ Plymouth ; "Welcome, 
Englishmen " ; Pilgrims going to church. 



X CONTEA'TS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

The Coming of the Puritans 42 

Illustrations : Oliver Cromwell ; Puritan gentleman ; Puritan lady ; John Win- 
throp ; John Davenport ; House of the first Governor of Rhode Island ; Merchant's 
wife, 1620 ; Map^ Early New England settletnents. 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Coming of the Dutch 47 

Illustrations ; The Half-Moon in Hudson River ; Dutch country people, seven- 
teenth century ; Dutch women, seventeenth century ; Map^ Early Dutch and Swedish 
settlements ; Peter Stuyvesant ; Street in New Amsterdam ; New York in the Dutch 
period. 

CHAPTER X. 
The Settlement of Maryland and the Carolinas ... 52 

Illustrations : First Lord Baltimore ; Charles I ; Second Lord Haltimore ; The 
landing in Maryland, 1634; Map^ Virginia and first Maryland settlement; Charles 
II ; Huguenot merchant and wife ; Map, Early Settlements in the Carolinas. 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Coming of the Quakers and others to the Jerseys and 

Pennsylvania 58 

Illustrations : Scotch woman ; Scotch man ; William Penn ; Penn's house in 
Philadelphia ; Map, Settlements in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania ; Treaty-belt. 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Settlement of Georgia, and the Coming of the Germans, 

Irish, and French 63 

Illustrations: General Oglethorpe; Map, Coast 0/ Georgia and Carolina; a 
Georgia road ; Highland piper ; German countryman ; German countrywoman ; Irish 
man ; Irish woman ; French countryman ; French countrywoman. 

CHAPTER XIII. 
How THE Indians lived 69 

Illustrations : Indian mother and child ; Medicine-man, 15S5 ; Indian cliildren 
playing ; Navajo Indian woman weaving a belt ; Wampum ; Indian wigwams of bark ; 
Manner of boiling ; Zurii Indian woman making pottery ; Indian bottle ; Indian 
manner of broiling in 1585 ; Stone axe ; Indian kindling fire ; Making a canoe ; Indian 
vase ; Indian girl with baskets ; Indian girls with water-jars ; Pottery from Missouri, 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Early Indian Wars 78 

Illustrations : Shell axe ; Florida warrior, 1565 ; Calumet ; Indian mask ; Iroquois 
Indian mask ; Belt of wampum ; King Philip ; North Carolina warrior, 1585. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XV. 



XI 



PAGE 

Traits of War with the Indians 86 

Illustrations : War-club ; Matchlock ; Matchlock-gun ; Soldier with matchlock-gfun ; 
Pikeman ; Matchlock-gun ; Snow-shoes ; Block-house ; Tail-piece. 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Life in the Colonial Time 91 

Illustrations : Cabin of round logs ; A calash ; Birch canoes ; Pack-horses ; School 
scene in 1740 ; A wedding in New Amsterdam ; Dutch woman skating. 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Farming and Shipping in the Colonies 99 

Illustrations : Colonial plow ; Flag of the New York merchant-sliips ; Ensign 
carried by New England ships ; Pirate Blackbeard. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Bondservants and Slaves in the Colonies .... 104 

Illustrations : English farm laborer, seventeenth centur>' ; Kidnapping a man 
for the colonies ; Sir John Hawkins. 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Laws and Usages in the Colonies 108 

Illustrations : Drumming for meeting ; The ducking-stool ; The sto.ks ; Punish- 
ment of a drunkard. 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Spaniards in Florida, and the French in Canada . .113 

Illustrations : Champlain ; Quebec in Champlain's time ; La Salle ; French gentle- 
man, 1700 ; Coureur des Bois ; Missionary priest ; Long-house of the Iroquois ; Map, 
French claim in Maine \ Map, Present territory of the United States, showing by 
whom it was claimed before 1 763. 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Colonial Wars with France and Spain 120 

Illustrations : Map, The home of the Iroquois; Queen Anne ; Old house at Deer- 
field ; Gateway at St. Augustine ; Map, Georgia and Florida in Oglethorpe's time. 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Braddol'k's Defeat, and the Expulsion of the Acadians . . 128 

Illustrations: Map, French and Indian Wars; Washington rallying Braddock's 
troops ; Map, Braddock's march ; Sir William Johnson ; Map, Lake George and 
vicinity ; Lord Loudon. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Fall of Canada 134 

Illustrations : William Pitt ; Amherst ; Map, Acadia ; Wolfe ; Montcalm ; Wolfe 
scales the Heights of Abraham ; Map, Vicinity of Quebec j Old view of Quebec. 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

PAGB 

Characteristics of the Colonial Wars with the French. . 139 

Illustrations : French officer ; French regular ; Canadian soldier ; Flint-lock ; In- 
dian moccasins ; Flint-lock gun ; Lord Howe ; Lord Howe washing his linen ; 
Rogers's slide, Lake George ; White captives ; Redoubt at Pittsburg, built 1764. 

CHAPTER XXV. 
How the Colonies were Governed 148 

Illustrations : Colonial court-house, Philadelphia ; A hatter's shop in old limes. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Earl'v^ Struggles for Liberty in the Colonies .... 153 
Illustrations : The pillory as used in America ; Governor Andres. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
The Causes of the Revolution 159 

Illustrations : James Otis ; Patrick Henry ; Hanover Court-House ; Samuel Adams ; 
*' The Boston Tea-party." 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
The Outbreak of the Revolution, and Declaration of Inde- 
pendence 165 

Illustrations : Pine-tree flag ; General Gage ; Ethan Allen ; Ruins of Ticonder- 
oga ; Battle of Bunker Hill ; Map, The Revolution about Boston ; Rattlesnake flag ; 
Map, The Revolutionary War at large ; American flag, beginning of the Revolu- 
tion ; Monticello, the home of Jefferson. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
The Battle of Trenton, and the Capture of Burgovne's Army 174 

Illustrations : George III ; Destroying the statue of George III in New York city ; 
Admiral Lord Howe; Map, The Revolution about Neiu York; The retreat from 
Long Island ; Hessian trooper ; Map, Trenton and Princeton ; Hessian trooper's 
boot; American flag, 1777; General Burgoyne; Map, Lake Champlain and vicin- 
ity ; Hessian made prisoner by militiaman ; General Gates. 

CHAPTER XXX. 
The Dark Period of the Revolution i8o 

Illustrations: General Sir William Howe ; .Ifap, The Revolution about Rhiladel' 
phia ; Baron Steuben ; De Kalb ; La Fayette ; Sir Henry Chnton ; Pulaski ; General 
Lincoln ; General Moultrie ; General Sumter ; General Marion. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
The Closing Years of the Revolution 186 

Illustrations : Uniforms of French soldiers in America ; Map, Revolutionary 
posts on the Hudson ; Benedict Arnold ; Major Andr^ ; Map, The Revolution at the 



CONTENTS. Xiii 

PAGE 

South \ Colonel Tarleton ; one of Morgan's riflemen ; General Nathanael Greene ; 
Royal flag of France ; Lord Cornwallis ; Rochambeau ; American artillery drawn by 
oxen ; Map, Vicinity of Yorktown \ House in which the surrender at Yorktown was 
made. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Traits and Incidents of the Revolutionary War . . .190 

ILLUSTR.\TI0NS : Esek Hopkins ; American seaman, 1776 ; John Paul Jones ; Amer- 
ican marine, 1776; A Revolutionary block-house; Revolutionary powder-horn and 
canteen ; Soldier of the Congress ; American rifleman ; American major-general ; 
English grenadier ; Israel Putnam ; " Brown Bess." 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Adoption of the Constitution 194 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
The New Republic and its People 200 

Illl'STRations : George Washington ; Diagram of comparative population \ Map, 
The United States at the close of the Revolution ; Wagons and carriages of that 
time; Singing with the harpsichord and, flute; River bateau; Benjamin Franklin; 
Birthplace of Franklin. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
Home and Society in Washington's Time 209 

Illustrations : Wool-wheel ; Flax-wheel ; Hat of Washington's time ; High head- 
dress of the time. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Washington's Presidency, from 1789 to 1797 213 

Illustrations : Martha Washington ; Alexander Hamilton ; Kentucky captives ; 
General St. Clair ; Anthony Wayne ; Map, Wayne's caynpaign ; Mount Vernon. 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Troubles with England and France. — Presidency of John 

Adams 221 

Illustrations: John Jay; John Adams; Cannoneer, 1797; Seaman, 1798; The 
White House. 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Election of Jefferson. — War with Tripoli 225 

Illustrations : Jefferson's seal ; Thomas Jefferson ; American seaman in Jeffer- 
son's time ; American soldiers about iSoo ; Map, The Barbary states ; Stephen 
Decatur. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

The Settlement of the Great Valley ...... 231 

Illustrations ; Daniel Boone ; Map, Northwest Territory. 



XIV 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XL. p^^ce 

The Purchase of Louisiana, and the Treason of Aaron Burr 238 

Illustrations: Maps, The United States be/ore the purchase of Louisiana; The 
United States after the purchase of Louisiana ; Aaron Burr. 

CHAPTER XLL 
Beginning of the Second War with England . . . .242 

Illustrations: George Clinton ; Tecumseh ; Map, Tippecanoe battle-ground \'\\ie. 
Prophet ; Map, Detroit and the Western forts ; Madison's home at Montpelier. 

CHAPTER XLH. 

The Navy in the War of 1812 248 

Illustrations : James Madison ; Constitution and Guerriere ; British flag ; Mrs. 
Madison ; The Constitution ; Seaman, 1815 ; Lawrence. 

CHAPTER XLIH. 
The Army in the War of 1812 255 

Illustrations: Map, Detroit and vicinity; Infantrj-man, 1S12-1834 ; Perry; Map, 
Battle of Lake Erie; French Canadian; French Canadian woman; Map, Lundy's 
Lane and vicinity ; Map, Battle of Lake Champlain ; Macdonough ; Map, British 
capture of Washington; The Star-Spangled Banner, 1795-1818; Map, Jackson's 
defense of Ne7v Orleans ; Major-general, 1S12. 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
Expansion of the Union 263 

Illustrations : Gentleman's riding-dress ; Head-dress, 1806 ; Turban head-dress ; 
Opera head-dress ; Evening dress in Jefferson's time ; Map, New States admitted up 
to 1821 ; Child's dress ; Walking costume, 1S07. 

CHAPTER XLV. 

From Monroe to Van Buren.— Rise of the Whigs and Demo- 
crats 269 

Illustrations : James Monroe ; Spanish standard ; Monroe's home at Montpelier, 
Va. ; John Quincy Adams ; Adams houses at Braintree, Mass. ; Andrew Jackson ; 
Dress of a lady in Jackson's time ; " The Hermitage " of Jackson ; John C. Calhoun ; 
Home of Calhoun ; Henry Clay ; Birthplace of Clay ; Daniel Webster ; Webster's 
home. 

CHAPTER XLVL 
The Steamboat, the Railroad, and the Telegraph . . .277 

Illustrations : Robert Fulton ; Baltimore clipper ; Fulton's first steamboat ; The 
first railroad passengeror in England ; First steam passenger-train in America ; 
S. F. B. Morse ; Little girl's dress ; A bonnet of 1830. 



CONTENTS. 



XV 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

PACE 

Annexation of Texas.— Beginning of the Mexican War . . 282 

Illustrations : William H. Harrison ; John Tyler ; James Knox Polk ; Sam 
Houston ; Diagram, Comparative size of Texas and France ; Map, Texan annexa- 
tion and disputed territory, 1845 ; Mexican flag ; Map, Taylor's campaign. 

CHAPTER XLVni. 
The Close of the Mexican War and the Annexation of New 



Territory 



Illustrations: Santa Anna; .Map, Relation 0/ Scott's to Taylor's campaign; 
Map, Scott's campaign ; Winfield Scott ; Map, sliouiing territory acquired from 
Mexico ; Map.^ The Oregon country. 

CHAPTER XLIX. 
The Question of Slavery in Politics 295 

Illustrations : Zachary Taylor ; Millard Fillmore ; I'ranklin Pierce. 



CHAPTER L. 
Break-up of Old Parties.— Approach of the Civil Wai 

Illustrations : Stephen A. Douglas ; James Buchanan. 

CHAPTER LI. 
Hovif THE Great Civil War began .... 



301 



306 



3'i 



Illustrations: Map, Charleston and vicinity ; Jefferson Davis; Confederate flag 
of 1861 ; Map, Seceding States. 

CHAPTER LII. 
Confederate Victory at Bull Run.— The Fir.st Western Cam- 
paign 

Illustrations : Map, Campaigns in Kentucky and West Virginia ; Map, First 
battle 0/ Bull Run ; Irvin McDowell ; P. G. T. Beauregard ; Charging an' earth- 
work ; Map, Battles in Missouri and Arkansas \ Andrew H. Foote ; John Pope ; 
Map, From Fort Donelson to Corinth ; A. S. Johnston ; D. C. Buell. 

CHAPTER LHI. 
The War in the East.— From Bull Run to Gettysburg . . 318 

Illustrations : George B. McClellan ; Stonewall Jackson ; Map, Peninsular cam- 
paign ; Map, The campaigns about Washington ; A. E. Burnside ; George G. Meade ; 
Map, The campaign in Pennsylvania. 

CHAPTER LIV. 
Various Operations in 1862 and 1863 323 

Illustrations : Map, Hampton Roads ; John Ericsson ; The Monitor and the Mer- 
rjmac; Farragut; Map, Capture of New Orleans; Braxton Bragg; Map, The cam- 
paign against Vicksburg. 



XVI 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER LV. 



PAGE 

The Campaign between Nashville and Atlanta .... 329 

Illustrations : Holding the line ; W. S. Rosecrans ; Map, Battles about Chatta- 
nooga \ George H. Thomas ; J. E. Johnston ; J. B. Hood ; Map, I-rom Naslwille 
to Atlanta. 

CHAPTER LVI. 
From the Wilderness to Petersburg. — The War in the Val- 
ley 334 

Illustrations : Ulysses S. Grant ; Robert E. Lee ; Map, Wilderness campaign ; 
Map, The Valley campaign ; Jubal Early ; Philip H. Sheridan ; Cold comfort. 

CHAPTER LVH. 
Close of the Civil War 342 

Illustrations : General Schofield ; William Tecumseh Sherman ; Map, Sherman's 
march ; Map, Lee's retreat. 

CHAPTER LVHI. 
Traits and Results of the Civil War.— Death of Lincoln . 346 

Illustration : Abraham Lincoln. 

CHAPTER LIX. 
Political Events since the Civil War 352 

Illustrations: Andrew Johnson ; Rutherford B. Hayes ; James A. Garfield ; Ches- 
ter A. Arthur ; Grover Cleveland ; Benjamin Harrison. 

CHAPTER LX. 
Later Developments of the Country 361 

Illustrations: Map, Alaska; Custer; Indian watching for buffaloes; Battle of 
Washita. 

CHAPTER LXL 
Population, Wealth, and Modes of Living 366 

Illustrations: Present flag; Map, Centers of population since 1790; The Penn- 
sylvania fireplace ; Old fireplace. 

CHAPTER LXn. 
Literature and Art in the United States 370 

Illustrations : Rittenhouse ; Washington Irving ; William Cullen Brjant ; Henry 
W. Longfellow ; Oliver Wendell Holmes ; Edgar A. Poe ; Ralph Waldo Emerson ; 
James Fenimore Cooper ; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Harriet Beecher Stowe ; William 
H. Prescott ; John L. Motley ; John J. Audubon ; Benjamin West ; John S. Copley ; 
Gilbert Stuzirt. 




CHAPTER I. 



HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA. 



It is now about four hundred years since Columbus Trade with mdia 
discovered America. People in Europe, up to that time, co.umb"r °' 
had known nothing of any lands on the western side of 
the Atlantic. Travelers were very liable to be robbed 
as soon as they reached a foreign land, and the ships of 
the time made but short voyages, and were often plun- 
dered by ships of other nations. The people of Europe, 
therefore, did not know much of Asia, except that it was 
the land of spices, which spices, grown in India, were 
sold from one country to another until the Turks sold 
them to European merchants. But, about two hundred 
years before Columbus was born, a Venetian, by the 
name of Marco Polo, had succeeded in visiting China, 
and had written a book giving many wonderful accounts 
of the splendor of the Chinese cities and of the riches 
of the Eastern countries generally, as well as many 
curious stories about the ^ people who lived in those 
far-away lands. 




HISTORY OF THE UMTED STATES. 



Porlugue: 
explorati( 




When Columbus was a boy, there was a prince ot 
Portugal, Don Henrique by name, who is known to us 
as Prince Henry the Navigator. He first turned men's 
minds in the direction of discover}'. Though the maps 
of his time made Africa extend to the south pole, 
Prince Henry believed, from what he found in ancient 
books, that there was a wa}- to get around Africa to 
India and China, and thus to bring the spices and 
other commodities of those lands to Europe by sea. 
But the seamen of that day were accustomed to sail 
mostl)' in the Mediterranean, and they were timid in 
the Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese sent out expe- 
dition after expedition for seventy years before they 
succeeded in discovering the Cape of Good Hope, and 
they had not yet got around that cape when Cohmibus 
offered to find a new and shorter way to India. 

Christopher Columbus, the most renowned of all 
discoverers, was born in the city of Genoa, in Italy. 
The exact date of his birth is uncertain. His father 
was a wool-comber by trade, but, though the family was 
humble, Columbus received considerable education, and 
he was all his life studious to acquire knowledge about 
navigation and about geography as far as it was then 
understood. He knew Latin, wrote a good hand, and 
drew maps exceedingly well. He sometimes supported 
himself b}' making maps and charts. At fourteen he 
went to sea, and before his great voyage he had sailed 
to almost all the countries of the known world. He had 
gone some distance down the newl}' discovered coast of 
Africa with the Portuguese, and to the north bej-ond Ice- 
land. Columbus married the daughter of a Portuguese 
navigator, and thus came into possession of his charts. 



I/On- COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA. 




As learned men already be- 
lieved the world to be round, Co- 
lumbus asked : Why try to get to 
India and China by going around 
Africa? Why not sail straight to 
the west around the world to 
Asia ? He did not know that 
America was in the wav, and he 
thought that the world was small- 
er than it is, and therefore he 
believed that he could reach the 
rich lands of gold and spices in 
Asia by sailing only two or three 
thousand miles to the westward. So that Columbus 
discovered America in consequence of two mistakes. 

He first offered to make this discovery for the city 
of Genoa, in which he was bom. Then he offered his 
plan to the King of Portugal. But a voyage on the 
great Atlantic Ocean seemed a dreadful thing in those 
days. It was called the " Sea of Darkness," because no 
one knew anything about it, and people imagined that 
it was inhabited by hideous monsters. 

The King of Portugal was an enlightened man, and 
the ideas of Columbus made an impression on him after 
a while. But he did not like to grant the great rewards 
demanded by the navigator if he should find land ; so 
he secretly sent out a ship under another commander to 
sail to the westward and see if there was any land there. 
The sailors on this ship were easily discouraged, and 
they returned laughing at Columbus and his notions. 

But Columbus was not a man to be discouraged. No 
rebuff from the great, no amount of ridicule, no bitter- 



Colum 
in Spa 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




D ISABELLA. 



ncss of poverty, could ever make him give up his great 
thought of discovering the western boundary of the At- 
lantic. Finding that he had been trifled with, he proudlv 
refused to reopen negotiations with King 
John of Portugal. Poor and in debt, he 
secretly left that country and traveled into 
- Spain afoot, leading his little son by the 
hand. He had determined to offer his 
idea to the King and Queen of Spain, the 
celebrated Ferdinand and Isabella. The 
Spanish monarchs were very busy in their war against 
the Moors, and Columbus spent six or seven 3^ears in 
tr3'ing to persuade them to furnish him ships and sail- 
ors for his voyage. The matter was at one time re- 
ferred to a meeting of learned men, some of whom tried 
to ])r()ve from the Scriptures and other writings that the 
\vt)rld was flat and not round. Others said that, if the 
world was round and a ship sailed down one side, it could 
never get back up again. During his long waiting on the 
king and queen, Columbus followed the Spanish court in 
its movements in the war with the Moors, and he even 
took a brave part in some of the battles of the time. He 
was laughed at for a visionar}', and the children in the 
streets tapped their foreheads with their fingers when 
he passed by, to intimate their belief that he was crazy. 
At length, when the war was over, his affair was consid- 
V ered and his offer rejected. For eighteen years he had 
A sought in vain an outfit for his voyage. But, not yet 
'Sjij^ out of heart, he resolved to quit Spain, and he set 
iKl I ^- out to begin his solicitations anew at the court of 
the King of France. Some of his friends now made 
a strong appeal to the Spanish queen, which so 




ffOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERED A A/ERICA. 



5 



impressed Isabella that she offered to sell her jewels, if 
necessary, to procure money to send Columbus on his 
expedition. A messenger on horseback recalled him, 
and by this prompt action Spain secured the glory of 
finding the New World. 

Columbus sailed from Spain on the 3d of August, "■' departure on 

his great voyage, 

1492, with three small vessels, two of which were with- and his discovery 
out decks, and he was more than two months on the 
voyage. The sailors were more and more frightened 
as they found themselves going farther and farther 
out of the known 
world. They some- 
times threatened to 
pitch Columbus over- 
board and return. 
He kept their cour- 
age up b\' every 
means he could think 
of, even by conceal- 
ing from them how 

far they had come. The flight of land-birds, the dis- 
covery of a twig, with berries on it, floating in the 
water, and at length the picking up of a carved stick, 
served to encourage the mariners, whose eyes were 
strained day after day to catch sight of anything but 
the wild waste of unknown waters through which they 
had been sailing for so many weeks. At last, one night, 
Columbus saw a glimmer of light, and the next morn- 
ing one of the other ships fired a gun, to signify that 
land was seen. This was the 12th of October, 1492. 
There was the wildest joy among the seamen. They 
had lately hated their commander, and wished to kill 




6 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES. 

him ; they now crowded about him to embrace him or 
to kiss his hands. 
What he had Instead of findinsj the rich cities of Asia, CoUnnbus 

found. ^ 

had come upon one of tlie smallest of the West India 
islands, which was inhabited by people entirely naked, 
and living in the rudest manner. He afterward dis- 
covered larger islands, and then sailed homeward. 
Return of Wq took with iiim to Spain some of the wild inhab- 

Columbus. _ _ '■ 

itants, who were exhibited at the court in all their 
show}- decorations of paint and feathers, and he also 
made a display of the golden ornaments he had pro- 
cured. Ferdinand and Isabella received him with the 
pomp due to a great conqueror, and he, who had been 
but a beggar before, was welcomed by the monarchs 
under a rich canopy of brocade of gold. The king and 
queen rose to welcome him, and made him sit down in 
their presence, a favor never shown except to the great- 
est grandees. The people, who had believed him a fool 
when he went away, followed him with cheers as he 
walked along the street. 
Later voyages Columbus, in his second voyage to America, planted 
a colony on the island of Hispaniola, or Hayti. In this 
and in two other voyages he discovered other islands 
and a portion oi the coast of South America, which he 
first saw in 1498. He made four voyages to America 
in all, setting out on the first in 1492, the second in 
1493, the third in 1498, and the fourth in 1502. Though 
a great navigator, he was not a wise governor of the 
colonies he planted, and he had manv enemies. In 
1500 he was cruelly sent home to Spain in chains. But 
Ferdinand and Isabella, as well as the people, were 
shocked at this degradation, and he was at once set 



of Colu 



HO IV COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA. 7 

free. His last vo3'age was unfortunate, and when he 
returned to Spain, in November, 1504, the monarchs 
paid little attention to him. Queen Isabella died soon 
after his return, while Columbus lay sick, and when the 
great navigator came to court the king was deaf to his 
petitions. Worn out with fatigue, exposure, and anxiety, 
the great admiral died on the 20th of May, 1506. He 
never knew that he had found a new world, but lived 
and died in the belief that the large island of Cuba 
was a part of the mainland of Asia. 

The investigations of scholars give us some reason to 
believe that America may have been visited from Europe 
before the time of Columbus. The inhabitants of Scan- 
dinavia (the coimtry now divided into Denmark, Sweden, 
and Norway) were known as Norsemen. In the old 
romantic tales of Scandinavia there are stories which go 
to show that these Norsemen, under the command of 
Leif, the son of Eric, in the year looi, and afterward, 
probably explored the coast of America from Labrador 
southward for some distance. Fanciful theories have 
been built on these stories, such as the notion that the old 
stone windmill at Newport, Rhode Island, is a tower 
built by the Norsemen. There is also a tradition in 
Wales that one Madoc, a Welsh prince, in the jear 
1 170, discovered land to the west of Ireland, and took 
a colony thither, which was never heard of afterward. 
If these stories of Leif and Madoc represent real voy- 
ages, the discoveries which they relate would probably 
never have been recalled to memor}- if Columbus had 
not opened a wide door at the right moment. 



8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

CHAPTER II. 

OTHER DISCOVERIES IX AMERICA. 

§A PART of the glory of Columbus's great discov- 
ery was taken away from him by accident. Instead 
of bearing the name of the great navigator whose 
persevering devotion to an idea led him to dis- 
cover it, the western hemisphere is named after 
.- i> Amerigo Vespucci, better known to us as Ameri- 
'"'""■■" cus Vespucius, the Latin form of his name. Vespu- 
cius was born in Florence, but he removed to Spain a 
Naming of little beforc Columbus sailed on his first vo\age. He was 

America. 

with an expedition that discovered a part of South Amer- 
ica in 1499. A false claim was made that Vespucius saw 
that continent twr j^ears earlier. But it is now believed 
that this first date is incorrect ; there are documents which 
go to show that Vespucius was in Spain during all that 
year, so that the earliest discovery of the South American 
Continent was by Columbus in 1498. 
Voyages of Amcricus undoubtedly went to America several 
Vespucius. times, both from Spain and Portugal. In 1503 he built a 
fort on the coast of Brazil ; and he left there a little col- 
ony, the first in that part of South America. Ferdinand of 
Spain made him pilot-major of his kingdom in 1508, and 
he died in 15 12. Americus wrote pleasantly about the 
new lands which he had seen, and some German geogra- 
phers were so pleased with his descriptions that they 
called the country America, in honor of Americus, sup- 
posing him to have first seen the continent. When North 
America came to be placed on the maps, this name was 



OTHER DISCOVERIES IN AMERICA. 




applied 

to it 

also. Thus, 

nearly half 

the world 

goes by the 

name of a 

man who had 

no claim to 

be called its 

discoverer. 

The voyage of Columbus was undertaken, as we have john cabot. 
seen, to open a trade with the Spice Islands of Asia, and 
the failure to find these was disappointing. There was 
another great Italian navigator living at the same time as 
Columbus, whose name was Zuan Caboto, who is called 
in English John Cabot. He, also, was probabl}' born in 
Genoa, but he was naturalized in Venice. He was living 
in Bristol, in England, in 1495, and had, no doubt, heard 
of the great discover)' of Columbus when he laid before 
King Henry VII of England his own plans for a voyage 
to the west. Columbus had been a traveler by sea, and 
had gone far to the southward and northward. Cabot 
had also been a traveler, but he had penetrated to the 
eastward overland, and had reached the citv of Mecca, 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Columbus 
Henry VII 



in Arabia, and had there seen the caravans bringing 
spices from India. He inquired of the people of 
these caravans where they got their spices. They 
said that other caravans brought them to their 
country, and that the people in those cai-avans re- 
ported that they bought them from people who lived 
yet farther away. From all this John Cabot con- 
cluded that the spices so much valued in Europe must 
grow in the most easterly part of Asia, and that he 
could reach this part of Asia by sailing to the west, as 
Columbus had done. 

While Columbus was trying to persuade Ferdinand 
and Isabella to send him on a voyage of discovery, he 
had sent his brother, Bartholomew Columbus, to make a 
like offer to the English king. When Bartholomew re- 
turned to Spain with King Henry VIl's answer, Christo- 
pher Columbus had already discovered the New World. 
But, though Columbus had found what he believed to 
be a part of Asia, he had not found the region of gold 
and spices. Cabot believed that he might be more for- 
tunate. He got permission from Henry VII to sail at 
the expense of certain English merchants, and in May, 
1497, nearly five years after Columbus had started on 
his first voyage, Cabot set sail from Bristol with only 
one small vessel and eighteen persons. He discovered 
the Continent of North America, which he of course 
supposed to be a part of Asia. He did not meet any 
Indians, but he brought to King Henry one of their 
traps for catching game, and 
a needle for making nets. He 




FOR MAKING NETS. 



OTHER DISCOVERIES IiV AMERICA. 




~i was received with great honor, 
and he who had gone away a 
poor Venetian pilot was now 
called " the Great Admiral," 
and dressed himself in silks, 
after the manner of great men 
of that time. 
The next year, accompanied by his son Sebastian 

he set sail with a much larger expedition, to find hi; 

way to Japan or China. After going far to the 

north, he sailed along what is now the coast of 

Canada and the United States as far to the south 

as North Carolina. But, as he did not find the 

riches of Asia, the English appear to have lo^i 

much of their interest in Western voyages. 

There is no account of John Cabot's second re- 
turn, nor do we know anything about him after 

his sailing to America the second time. His son 

Sebastian, who was a great geographer, and who 

lived to be very old, seems to have always spoken of second voyage 

1 11,1111 1 of the Cabots. 

the voyages as though he had made them alone, but 
we now know that it was John Cabot who discovered 
North America. 

Five years after Columbus sailed to America, a Port- oa oama 

, „ J J • doubles the Cape 

uguese expedition, under V asco da (jama, succeeded in of Good Hope. 

sailing round the Cape of Good Hope, and reaching 

Calcutta in India. This was the accomplishment 

of the dream of Prince Henry the Navigator, 

who had at this time been dead thirty-four 

years. It was still believed that America 

was a part of Asia, and that Columbus's 

discovery had opened another road to the 





HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Balboa dis 
the Pacific 




Indies. It was 
not till after the 
death of Colum- 
bus that people 
began to suspect 
that the newly 
discovered lands 
were not parts 
of Asia. 

The Pacific Ocean was discovered at the west of 
America, in 15 13, by Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa, while this 
explorer was leading a Spanish expedition in Central 
America. An Indian chief's son, seeing the Spaniards 
quarreling over the gold they had got, and perhaps 
wishing to rid his own country of them, told them that, 
since they were so fond of gold, he could show them an 
ocean, on the shores of which was the great kingdom of 
Peru, rich in that metal. Balboa crossed the isthmus, 
and, wading full-armed into the waters of " The South 
Sea," as he called the Pacific, took possession of the 
ocean and all the countries on its coasts for the King 
and Queen of Spain. 

It now became a question of finding a way through 
or around America, so as to come to the rich trade 
with India, which the Portuguese had reached by the 
way of the Cape of Good Hope. The Spaniards ac- 
complished this by an expedition under an explorer 
named Magellan. Fernando Magellan was a native 
of Portugal. He served the Portuguese government 
in the East Indies, and was in tiie expedition that 
discovered some of the Spice Islands. Having received 
a slight from the Portuguese government, he renounced 



OTHER DISCOVERIES IN AMERICA. 



13 



his country and entered the service of the King of 
Spain. He sailed on his famous voyage in September, 
1 5 19, with five ships. It was not known then that one 
could pass around Cape Horn, but South America was 
thought to reach to the south pole, and Magellan was 
therefore intent on finding some way of getting through 
that continent. On the coast of South America he lost 
one of his vessels, and suppressed a mutiny. In Octo- 
ber, 1520, he entered the straits that bear his name. His 
men were very reluctant to go on, and one ship turned 
back out of the channel and sailed home. With the 
three ships left he entered the Pacific. At the Philip- 
pine Islands he was killed in a battle with the natives, 
and many of his men were massacred. Onl\' one of his 
ships, the Victoria, succeeded in getting around the 
world, and she had but eighteen men left alive when 
she got back, and they were sick and almost starving 
This was the first voyage around the globe. 

But Magellan's route was too long a course for trade, 
and many other navigators sailed up and down the 
American coast, expecting to find some passage by which 
they could get through the continent to go to China, 
India, and Japan. They did not understand that Amer- 
ica was a continent ; they believed that it might prove 
to be cut through in some places by straits, like Ma- 
gellan's, if they could only find them. Several great 
English navigators tried to discover what they called 
the Northwest Passage, by sailing along the coast of 
Labrador and into the rivers and bays of America, 
while the French thought to get through to China by 
passing up the river St. Lawrence and through the 
great lakes at its head. 




Other explorers 
seek the North- 
west Passage. 



H 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Colonies pro- 
posed. 



For a long time after Cabot's discovery, nobody in 
England thought it worth while to send colonies to 
North America, which was regarded only as a bar to all 
attempts to reach Asia bj' the west. But, the colonists 
sent from Spain having found gold in great quantities in 
Mexico and South America, the English at length began 
to think of settling colonies in North America, to look 
for gold there also. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
Sir Martin Frobisher and Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who 
were both great seekers after a northwest passage to 
India, united this with a search after gold, and they even 
made some feeble attempts to plant colonies on the North 
American coast. But it was not until that ver}- great 
man, Sir Walter Ralegh, undertook 
the work, that any wise or hopeful 
beginning was made in colonization 
by the English. 




Ralegh'! 
charterc 



CHAPTER III. 

SIR WALTER RALEGH TRIES TO SETTLE 
A COLONY IN AMERICA. 

If it had not been for the inter- 
est which Sir Walter Ralegh took 
oiony in plans for settling America, we might never have 
had a nation of English-speaking people in this coun- 
try. Ralegh was one of the most brilliant and one of 
tfie most ambitious men at the court of Queen Eliza- 
beth, as he certainly was one of the most gifted men 



5/A' WALTER RALEGH'S COLONY. j t 

of that brilliant time. While yet young, he fought for 
years on the side of the Huguenots in the French civil 
wars, and afterward took part in the war in Ireland. 
On his return from Ireland, he is said to have won 
the queen's favor by throwing his new plush cloak 
into a muddy place in the road for her to walk on. It 
is certain that by some means he rose rapidly at court. 
Having received from Queen Elizabeth a charter which 
gave him a large territory in America, he sent out an 
exploring expedition in 1584, ninety-two years after the 
discovery by Columbus. Eighty-seven years had passed 
since John Cabot, in an English ship, first discovered the 
coast of North America, which had lain all this time 
unexplored, a m3'stery and a puzzle to the Old World. 

Ralegh's expedition was commanded by two cap- Raiegh sends c 
tains named Amidas and Barlowe. They landed on 
that part of the coast which we now call North Caro- 
lina. The country pleased them very much. They 
were especially wonder-struck at the surpassing abun- 
dance of wild grapes for which the North Carolina 
coast has always been famous, and they tell of great 
vines " climbing toward the tops of high cedars." To 
the first Indian they encountered, they presented a shirt 
and a hat, in which garments he probably felt very 
fine, for he rowed a little way off from the ship and 
fell to fishing with his rude tackle, and when he had 
almost swamped his canoe with fish, he divided them 
between the white men in the two ships. An Indian 
chief who visited the ships fancied a bright tin dish 
more than anything else the white men had. Having 
procured it by exchange, he made a hole in it, and 
hung it on his breast as an ornament. 



i6 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The expeditii 
returns. 



Ralegh's expedition stayed about six weeks in the 
New World, and, everything here being strange to the 
eyes of the explorers, they fell into many mistakes in 
trying to describe what they saw and heard. When 
they got back to England, they declared that the part 
of America they had seen was the paradise of the 
world. 

Ralegh was much encouraged by the accounts which 
his two captains gave of the new country they had 
found. It was named Virginia at this time, in honor 
nf Oiieen Elizabeth, who was often 
t.illed the " Virgin Queen." But 
the name Virginia, which we ap- 
ply to two of our States, was 
" then used for all the territories 
claimed by the English in Amer- 
ica — that is to say, for the whole 
coast of the United States between 
d Georgia, so far as it 




#?/J ^> 1^M\i'^~K "'IS known. 



In 15S5, the year after the return of 
uEEN ELIZABETH. thc first cxpeditlou, Ralegh sent out a 

colony to remain in America. Sir Richard Grenville, 
a famous seaman, had command of this expedition ; but 
he soon returned to England, leaving the colony in 
charge of Ralph Lane. There were no women in 
Ralph Lane's company. They made their settlement 
on Roanoke Island, which lies near to the coast of 
North Carolina, and they explored the mainland in 
many directions. They spent much time in trying to 
find gold, and they seem to have thouglit that the 
shell-beads worn by thc Indians were pearls. Like all 



S//? WALTER RALEGH'S COLONY. 



1/ 




the others who came to America in that time, 
they were very desirous of finding a way to 
get across America, which they believed to be 
very narrow. They hoped to reach the Pacific 
Ocean, and so open a new way of sailing to 
China and the East Indies. 

The Indians by this time were tired of the 
white men, and anxious to be rid of them. 
They told Lane that the Roanoke River came 
out of a rock so near to a sea at the west that 
the water sometimes dashed from the sea into the river, 
making the water of the river salt. Lane believed this Lane tries to 

find the Pacific 

story, and set out with most of his men to hnd a sea ocean, 
at the head of the river. Long before the_y got to 
the head of the Roanoke their provisions gave out. 
But Lane made a brave speech to his men, and they 
resolved to go on. Having nothing else to eat, they 
killed their two dogs, and cooked the meat with sassa- 
fras-leaves to give it a relish. When this meat was ex- 
hausted, they got into their boats and ran swiftly down 
the river, having no food to eat on the way home. 
Lane got back to Roanoke Island just in time to keep 
the Indians from killing the men he had left there 

Unluckily, the colony at this time had an im- 
expected visitor. Sir Francis Drake, one of the 
greatest of the naval commanders, who, in a pre- \ 
vious voyage, had discovered the coast of Califor- 
nia, and sailed round the globe in the track of Ma- 
gellan, had been about this time attacking the Spanish The colony 
in the West Indies. On his return he put in at Roanoke land with sir 
Island to inquire after the colony. He furnished the 
company on the island with a ship and with whatever 




SIR FRANCIS DRAKE. 



i8 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Tobacco brought 
to England. 



Ralegh's 
colony. 



else they needed. But, while he remained at Roanoke, 
a storm arose which drove to sea the ship he had given 
to Lane. This so discouraged the colonists that they 
returned to England in Drake's ships. 

Ralph Lane and his companions were the first to 
carry tobacco into England. They learned from the 
Indians to smoke it in Indian fashion, by drawing the 
smoke into their mouths and puffing it 
out through their nostrils. Ralegh 
adopted the practice, and many dis- 
tinguished men and women followed 
his example. The use of tobacco was 
greatlv promoted by an erroneous 
opinion of the time that it had great 
medicinal virtue. Some of the first 
tobacco-pipes in England were made 
ig a walnut-shell for the bowl of the pipe 
and a straw for the stem. It is related that, when 
Ralegh's servant first saw his master with the smoke 
coming from his nose, he thought him to be on fire, and 
poured a pitcher of ale, which he was fetching, over 
Sir Walter's head, to put the fire out. 

Ralegh set to work, with the help of others, to send 
out another colony. This time he sent women and chil- 
dren, as well as men, intending to make a permanent 
settlement. The governor of this company was John 
White, an artist, who had been with Lane's colony. 
White made many interesting drawings of the people, 
plants, and animals of the country, and some of his draw- 
ings are still preserved in London. In the chapters of 
this book devoted to the Indians are some pictures made 
from White's drawings. Soon after White's company 




SIJi WALTER RALEGH'S COLONY. jq 

had settled themselves on Roanoke Island, an English 

child was born. This little girl, being the first English 

child born in Virginia, was named Virginia Dare. 

|ohn White, the governor of the colonv, who was Ralegh's sec- 
ond colony 

Virginia Dare's grandfather, went back to England for disappears, 
supplies. He was detained by the war with Spain, and, 
when he got back to Roanoke Island, the colony had dis- 
appeared. Ralegh had spent so much money already 
that he was forced to give up the attempt to plant a 
colony in America. But he sent several times to seek for 
the lost people of his second colony, without finding 
them. Twenty years after John White left them, it was 
said that seven of them were still alive among the In- 
dians of North Carolina. 

After the failure of White's colony, Ralegh engaged in Death of Raiegh 
the defense of England against the Spanish Armada. On 
the accession of James I, he was thrown into the Tower 
of London, where he was kejit for more than twelve 
years, and then released. In 1618 King James had this 
great man put to death to please the King of Spain. 
When Ralegh was about to be beheaded, he felt of the 
edge of the axe, and said, " It is a sharp medicine to 
cure me of all my diseases." He was a great soldier, a 
great statesman, a great seaman, an excellent historian, 
and a charming poet. He is said to have first planted 
the potato in Ireland. But our interest in him here arises 




20 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

from the fact that his was the first colony of English 
people that was ever actually landed in this country, 
and his experiments first showed the true way of plant- 
ing- colonies in North America. 




Motives to cc 
ony-planting. 



CHAPTER IV. 



HOW JAMESTOWN WAS SETTLED. 



Gosnold's colony. 



After the total disappearance of Ra- 
legh's second colony, Englishmen were 
for a while too much engrossed in the 
war with Spain and their own politics to give 
any attention to the peopling of " Virginia," 
as they called the coast of North America. 
But the stories of a virgin land, where grapes 
grew wild, which Ralegh's ships had brought 
back, probably kept alive the desire to plant a colony. 
Then, too, Spain, the great enemy of England at that 
time, was deriving vast wealth from the silver-mines of 
Mexico and South America, and men asked why Eng- 
land should not find silver and gold in the unexplored 
wilderness of northern America. 

In 1602, sixteen years after Ralegh had sent his second 
colony, Bartholomew Gosnold, a navigator of the west of 
England, tried to plant a colony. He sailed to the coast 
of New England, and gave to Cape Cod the name it 
bears now, and then, following the example of Ralegh's 
people, he selected an island on the coast for his colony. 
The island chosen was that now known as Cuttyhunk. 



HOW JAMESTOWN WAS SETTLED. 



This island contains a large pond, and in this pond is a 
small island, and on this little island Gosnold thought 
that with twenty men he might be safe from the attacks 
of the savages. Like a set of Crusoes, they proceeded to 
build a flat-bottomed boat to ply about the pond ; then 
they dug a cellar, and built a house on the little isl- 
and, thatching the roof with grass. But there sprang 
up a quarrel about the division of the profits on the 
furs they had bought from the Indians and the sassafras 
they had dug, and so the whole company returned to 
England, and the coast of New England lay without an 
English inhabitant for eighteen years longer. 

But Gosnold did not lie idle. The great thought of 
planting a new nation in America had taken possession of 
this sea-captain, as it had before of the brilliant imagina- 
tion of Ralegh. Joining himself with some of the mer- 
chants who had been partners in Sir Walter's last vent- 
ure, and others, Gosnold succeeded in forming what was 
generally called " The Virginia Company." This com- 
pany sent to America the colony that made the first per- 
manent beginning of English settlement in this country. 

It was in the stormy December of 1606 that the little 
colony set out. There were, of course, no steamships 
then ; and the vessels they had were clumsy, small, and 
slow. The largest of the three ships that carried out 
the handful of people which began the settlement of the 
United States was named " Susan Constant." She was 
of a hundred tons burden. Not many ships so small 
cross the ocean to-day. But the " God-speed " which 
went along with her was not half so big, and the smallest 
of the three was a little pinnace of only twenty tons, 
called " Discovery." 



: Virgi: 
npany. 



Departure of the 




22 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



he voyage 
nd the arri 
1 Virginia. 



Settlement at 
Jamestown. 



On account of storms, these feeble ships were not able 
to get out of sight of the English coast for six weeks. 
People in that time were afraid to sail straight across the 
unknown Atlantic Ocean ; they went away south by the 
Canary Islands and the West Indies, and so made the 
distance twice as great as it ought to have been. It took 
the new colony about four months to get from London to 
Virginia. They intended to land on Roanoke Island, 
where Ralegh's unfortunate colonies had been settled, 
but a storm drove them into a large river, which they 

called "James River," in 
honor of the king. They 
arrived in Virginia in the 
month of April, when the 
banks of the river were 
covered with flowers. 
Great white dog -wood 
blossoms and masses of 
bright -colored red -bud 
are in bloom all along the 
James River at this sea- 
son. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that the new- 
comers should declare 
that heaven and earth had 
agiced together to make this a 
countr\ to live in. 
* \ltti sailmg up and down the river 

to examine the country, they selected for their dwelling- 
place a low-lying but pleasant-looking peninsula, which, 
by the action of the water, has since become an island. 
They named this place Jamestown. They had delayed 




HOIV JAMESTOWN WAS SETTLED. 2% 

SO long that their supply of food was pretty well con- 
sumed, and it was too late to plant, even if they had 
had cleared ground. They had brought the wrong 
kind of people ; most of them were " gentlemen " un- 
used to work, and unlit 
for such hardships as 
now befell them. One 
small ladleful of pottage, 
made of worm-eaten bar- 
ley or wheat, was all that 
was given to a man for a 
meal. The settlers were attacked 
by the Indians, who wounded 
seventeen men and killed one boy 
in the fight. 

Each man in Jamestown had to 
take his turn every third night in watching against the Many of the coi- 

onists perish. 

Indians, lying on the cold, bare ground all night. The 
only water to drink was that from the river, which 
was bad. The people were soon nearly all of them 
sick ; there were not five able-bodied men to defend 
the place had it been attacked. Sometimes as many 
as three or four died in a single night, and sometimes 
the living were hardly able to bury those who had 
died. There were about a hundred colonists landed 
at Jamestown, and one half of these died in the first 
few months. All this time the men in Jamestown were 
living in wretched tents and poor little hovels covered 
with earth, and some of them even in holes dug into 
the ground. As the sickness passed away, those who 
remained built themselves better cabins, and thatched 
the roofs with straw. 




24 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Adventures c 
Captain John 




One of the most industrious men in the colony at 
this time was Captain John Smith, a young man who 
had had many adventures, of which he was fond of 
-) )asting. Born in England in 1579, he went 
into the wars in the Netherlands while he 
was little more than a boy. He was after- 
ward shipwrecked, robbed, and in great 
peril from want in France. He was, he 
tells us, thrown overboard by superstitious 
pilgrims in a storm, as a kind of Jonah, 
but, finding no whale to save him, he man- 
aged to swim ashore. The Turks and 
Christians were at that time fighting in the 
east of Europe, and all sorts of adventurers 
sought these wars, among the rest this roving 
young John Smith. Here, if we may believe his 
own account of himself, he introduced a new way of 
signaling from one part of the army to another, and 
invented a destructive kind of lire-works. One day, 
while the Christians were besieging a town, a Turk 
rode out and challenged any Christian to fight him in 
mortal combat, for the amusement of the ladies, who 
found the time pass heavil\', no doubt, in a besieged 
city. Ladies in that day, whether Turks or Christians, 
liked these bloody encounters. Smith engaged the Turk 
and killed him, as he did another the next day, and 
then a tiiird. For this success. Smith was granted 
a coat of arms bearing three Turks' heads in a shield. 
He was at length made prisoner by the Turks and 
reduced to galling slavery, from which he escaped by 
beating out his master's brains with a flail, dressing 
himself in his master's clothes, mounting his horse, and 



JiOlV JAMESTOWN WAS SETTLED. 



!5 



getting off into the wilderness with a sack of wheat for 
food, and so making his way into Russia, after sixteen 
days of wandering. After other adventures, he got back 
to England, still a young man. With a liking for bold 
undertakings, it was natural that he should join the new 
colony setting sail for Virginia. 

In Virginia he followed the same adventurous career. 
He took the little pinnace " Discovery " and sailed up 
and down the rivers and bays of Virginia, exploring the 
country, getting acquainted with many tribes of Indians, 
and exchanging beads, bells, and other trinkets for corn, 
with which he kept the Jamestown people from starv- 
ing. In one of these trips he was attacked by the In- 
dians, who killed ten of his men and made him 
prisoner. But he interested the savages in his 
pocket-compass, which was a great myster}' to them, 
and so diverted them from putting him to death. The 
Indians led him from one of their villages to another, 
probably to satisfy the curiosity of their people regard- 
ing this strange captive. He was brought at length 
to Powhatan, the head chief of about thirty tribes, 
who after a while set him free and sent him 
back to Jamestown. During this captivity he won the 
friendship of Pocahontas, one of the daughters of Pow- 
hatan. She was then about ten or eleven years old, 
and Captain Smith greatly admired her. Many years 
afterward he said that Powhatan had at one time or- 
dered his brains beaten out, and that, when his head 
was laid upon a stone for that purpose, Pocahontas had 
put her arms about his neck and saved his life. The 
story is so pretty and romantic that one does not like 
to disbelieve it. 



captured 
Indians. 




26 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Captai 
explor 



' p^ Island 



John Smith was the first to explore 
Chesapeake Bay, which he did in two 
voyages, enduring many hardships with 
cheerfuhiess. When it was cold, Smith 
and his men would move their fire two 
or three times of a night, that they 
might have the warm ground to lie 
upon. He managed the Indians well, 
getting corn for the settlers ; he con- 
trived to put down several mutinies at 
Jamestown, and rendered many other 
services to the colon3^ He was the 
leading man in the settlement, and came at length 
to be governor. But when many hundreds of new 
settlers were brought out under men who were his 
enemies, and Smith had been injured by an explosion 
of gunpowder, he gave up the government and went 
back to England. He afterward explored the coast 
north of Cape Cod, and named that countr}- New Eng- 
land. His chief fault was a vanit}- that led him to 
make the most of his adventures, which appear to have 
been romantic enough, even when allowance is made for 
his proneness to exaggeration in telling them. 




TYie starv 
time. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE ST.A.RVING TIME, AND WHAT FOLLOWED. 

When Captain John Smith went back to England, in 
1609, there were nearly five hundred white people in 
Virginia. But the settlers soon got into trouble with the 



THE STAR VI XG TIME. 



27 



Indians, who lay in the woods and killed every one that 
ventured out. There was no longer any chance to buy 
corn, and the food was soon exhausted. The starving 
people ate the hogs, the dogs, and the horses, even to 
their skins. Then they ate rats, mice, snakes, toad- 
stools, and whatever they could get that might stop their 
hunger. A dead Indian was presently eaten, and, as 
their hunger grew more extreme, the people were forced 
to consume their own dead. Starving men wandered 
off into the woods and died there ; their companions, 
finding them, devoured them as hungry wild beasts 
might have done. This was always afterward remem- 
bered as " the starving time." 

Along with the people who came at the close of John sirTho 
Smith's time, there had been sent another ship-load of Bermui 
people, with Sir Thomas Gates, a new governor for the 
colony. This vessel had been shipwrecked, but Gates 
■;m-=_^,^ — — — - — =r and his people had got ashoie 

on the Bei muda 



Islands 




TllLbt 

islands had 

no mhabitants at 

that time. Here these shipwrecked 

people lived well on wild hogs. When spring 

came, they built two little vessels of the cedar-trees 

which grew on the island. These they rigged with 

sails taken from their wrecked ships, and, getting 



28 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Gates reache 
Jamestown. 



their people aboard, they made their way to James- 
town. 

When they got there, they found alive but sixty of 
the four hundred and ninety people left in Virginia in 
the autumn before, and these sixty would all have died 
had Gates been ten days later in coming. The food 
that Gates brought would barely last them sixteen 
days. So he put the Jamestown people aboard his little 
cedar ships, intending to sail to Newfoundland in hope 
of there falling in with some English fishing-vessels. 
He set sail down the river, leaving not one English 
settler on the whole continent of 
America. 

But, before Gates and his peo- 
ple got out of James River, they 
met a boat rowing up toward 
them. Lord De la Warr, 
whose name we now write 
Delaware, had been sent 
out from England as gov- 
ernor of Virginia. From 
some Englishmen stationed at 
the mouth of the river he had 
learned that Gates and all the 
people were coming down. He immediately sent his 
long-boat to turn them back again. On a Sunday 
morning De la Warr landed at Jamestown, which 
looked like some ancient ruin, because the wretched 
people had burned many of the palisades and cabins 
for fire-wood. De la Warr's first act was to kneel upon 
the shore awhile in prayer. Then he went to the little 
church, where he took possession of the government, 




THE STARVING TIME. 



29 



and rebuked the people for the idleness that had brought 
them so much suffering. 

But Lord De la Warr held to the notion of the De la warrs 
time, that there must be gold in almost every mountain 
in America ; so he wasted time in trying to penetrate 
to the mountains for gold, and in building a fort higher 
up the river, where Richmond now stands, which was 
abandoned as soon as finished. A great sickness pre- 
vailed, and a hundred and fifty of the colonists died. 
Lord De la Warr, finding himself very ill, left the col- 
ony, to the great discouragement of the people. 

The next year Sir Thomas Dale took charge, and he sir Thomas Dale 
remained in Virginia for five years, part of the time 
as governor-in-chief and part of the time as second in 
command under Sir Thomas Gates. Dale was a soldier, 
and ruled with extreme severity. He forced the idle 
settlers to labor, he drove away some of the Indians and 
settled new towns, and he built fortifications. But the 
people hated him for his savage harshness. He punished 
men by fiogging, and by setting them to work in irons 
for years. Those who rebelled in desperation, or tried 
to run away from their misery, were caught and put 
to death in barbarous ways. Some were burned alive, 
others tortured by being broken on the wheel, and 
one man for merely stealing food to satisfy his hun- 
ger was chained up in a cruel way and left to starve 
to death. 

Powhatan, the head chief of the neighboring tribes, The capture 

of Pocahontas. 

gave the colony a great deal of trouble during the first Her marriage. 
part of Dale's time. His daughter Pocahontas, who as 
a child had often played with the boys within the pali- 
sades of Jamestown, and had shown herself friendly to 



30 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Pocahontas in 
England. 



Tobacco first 
raised in Vir- 



Captain Smith and others in their trips among the In- 
dians, was now a woman grown. While she was vis- 
iting a chief named Japazaws, an 
English captain named Argall 
bribed that chief with a cop- 
per kettle to betra}' her into 
his hands. Argall took 
her a captive to James- 
town. Here a white 
man by the name of 
John Rolfe married 
her, after she had re- 
ceived Christian bap- 
tism. This marriage 
brought about a peace 
between Powhatan and 
the English settlers in 
\'irginia. 
When Dale went back to 
England in 1616 he took with 
him some of the Indians. Poca- 
hontas, who was now called " the Ladv Rebecca," and 
her husband went to England with Dale. Pocahontas 
was called a " princess " in England, and received much 
attention. But when about to start back to the colon)' 
she died, leaving a little son. 

One of the first requisites for the success of a colonv 
is some commodity that may be exported to pav for 
clothing and those other necessaries of life which must 
be bought from older countries. The attempts to find 
gold or silver in Virginia had proved vain. Silk, cot- 
ton, and many other things were attempted at James- 




THE STAR VI XG TIME. 



31 



town from the very start, but the only product that was 
found really profitable was tobacco. This " weed," as it 
was even then called, was, like Indian corn and the po- 
tato, unknown to Europe until after America was dis- 
covered. It was introduced under the belief that it was 
of great value as a medicine. When Ralegh had made 
its use fashionable in England, the English people bought 
their tobacco from Spain. But John Rolfe, the same 
who married Pocahontas, and who seems to have been 
fond of new experiments, thought that, if the Virginia 
Indians could grow tobacco for their own use, he might 
grow it in Virginia for the English market. He tried 
tobacco-culture in 1612, and it was immediatelv so suc- 




READY TO GO TO VIR- 
SHOWINQ THE DRESS 
THAT TIME. 



cessful that tobacco became in three or four years the 
money by which trade was carried on and debts paid, 
and it remained the recognized currency of Virginia and 
Maryland for about a hundred and fifty years. Tobacco 



32 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



brought a large price in 1612 and for years afterward, 
and, as it furnished tlie first means by which people in 
Virginia might gain a living, it helped to make the 
colony successful. But in 1616, when Dale gave up 
the government, there were only about three hun- 
dred and fifty English people in Virginia, and none 
besides in North America. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE GREAT CHARTER OF VIRGINIA, AXD THE FIRST 
MASSACRE BY THE INDIANS. 



Living ai 
ing in CO 



id work- 
Timon. 




During all the early years of the Virginia colony the 
people were fed and clothed out of a common stock of 
provisions. They were also obliged to work for this 
stock. No division was made of the land, nor could the 
industrious man get any profit by his hard work. The 
laziest man was as well off as the one who worked hard- 
est, and under this arrangement men neglected their 
work, and the colony was alwa^-s poor. The colonists 
had been promised that after five years they should have 
land of their own and be free, but this promise was not 
kept. In 1614 Sir Thomas Dale gave to some who had 
been longest in Virginia three acres of ground apiece, 
and allowed them one month in the year to work on 
their little patches. For this they must support them- 
selves and give the rest of their work to the common 
stock. Even this arrangement made them more indus- 
trious. But the cruel militarj' laws put in force by the 



THE GREAT CHARTER OF VIRGINIA. 



Zl 



governor made Virginia so unpopular that men sen- 
tenced to be hanged for petty felonies refused pardon 
when offered to them on condition of their going to the 
colony. 

Argall, who came after Dale, was a greedy rascal, th 
who governed very badly, and Virginia was almost 
ruined. In 1618 many new emigrants came out, and 
Lord De la Warr was again sent as governor, but he 
died on the way. The " Virginia Company," of London, 
which had the government of the colony about this time, 
began to come under the control of certain great states- 
men with liberal ideas. Among them was Sir Edwin 
Sandys and the Earl of Southampton. These men were 
engaged in Parliament in resisting the tyranny of King 
James's government, and in trying to establish liberty in 
England. This was slow work in an old country where 
the sovereign had long had almost absolute power. But 
Southampton and Sand3-s and their friends probably 
thought it best to begin rightly in Virginia, and so to 
make that countr}' a refuge for those who suffered from 
oppression in England. The Virginia Company, taking 
advantage of the power which the king had given to it, 
granted to Virginia, in November, 1618, a "Great 
Charter," under \vhich the people of the colony were 
allowed a voice in making their own laws. This was 
the beginning of free government in America. Under 
the charter the government of Virginia was put into the 
hands of a governor, a " council of estate," and a " Gen- 
eral Assembly." The members of the General Assembly 
were chosen to represent the different settlements or 
" boroughs " in Virginia. The other American colonies 
afterward took pattern from this threefold government. 




34 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



Features of the Xhc govcmment of the United States by a President, 

cnarter govern- 
ment that re- a Senate, and a House of Representatives shows that the 

ideas put into the Great Charter have left their mark on 
the Constitution of our country. The governments of 
all our States also show traces of the same idea. Each 
State has a governor, a Senate, and a House of Representa- 
tives. So that the plan arranged in 1618 for a few hun- 
dred people in Virginia was a tiny stream that has spread 
out into a great river. 

Division of land "Thg Great Charter also gave the people of Virginia 

the right to divide the land into farms, and to own and 
work ground each for himself. When the new governor, 
Sir George Yeardley, got to Vii-ginia in the spring of 
1619, bringing this good news that the settlers were to 
live under laws of their own making, were to cultivate 
their own land, and enjoy the fruits of their own labors, 
they thought themselves the happiest people in the 
world. 

Sending of wives X\. this time there were but few women in Virginia, 

to Virginia. _ '^ 

and none of the men intended to remain there long. It 
was thought that the colony would be more firmly plant- 
ed if the colonists had wives. Young women were there- 
fore sent out to be married to the settlers. But, before 
any man could marry one of these, he was obliged to 
gain her consent, and to pay the cost of her passage, 
which was about a hundred and fifty pounds of tobac- 
co. This venture proved very satisfactory to the Vir- 
ginians, and ship-loads of women were therefore sent for 
wives from time to time for years afterward. When the 
colonists had land and houses of their own, with wives 
and children, they felt themselves at home in America, 
and no lonsrer thoug-ht of going back to England. 



THE GREAT CHARTER OF VIRGINIA. 



35 



Before this there had been a good many small wars Indian trouble 
and troubles of one kind or other with the Indians. But, 
as the Indians had few fire-arms, the white men could 
easily defend themselves. After 1619 many efforts were 
made to civilize and convert the savages. Money was 
given to educate their children, and a college was planned 
for them. To conciliate Opechankano, who was brother 
to Powhatan and had succeeded him, the white people 
built that chief a house. Nothing about this dwelling 
interested its owner so much as the lock, which was a 
great novelty to him. He took delight in locking and 
unlocking the door many times a day. 

One ambitious Indian brave, whom the white people "jack or the 

Feather." 

called "Jack of the Feather," and who was believed to be 
proof against bullets, was suspected of wishing war. At 
length he killed a white man, and the white man's serv- 
ants, in trying to take him to the governor, shot him. 
The Indians did not show any resentment at his death at 
first, and Opechankano said that the sky might fall soon- 
er than he would break the peace. But on the 22d of 
March, 1622, while the men of the colony were in the 
fields, the Indians suddenly fell on the settlements, killing 
the white people mostly with their own axes, hatch 
ets, and hoes. Three hundred and forty-seven 
men, women, and children were slain in a single 
day. One Indian lad, living in a white man's 
house, had been notified by his brother, who lav 
down by him during the night, that 
the massacre would take place the 
next day, and that he was expected 
to slay the man in whose house he 
dwelt, whose name was Pace. But 




36 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



The Virginia 
Company di; 



the boy could not bear to kill 
his benefactor, and when his 
brother had gone he got up 
and warned Mr. Pace of the 
impending danger. Pace hast- 
ened to Jamestown and noti- 
tied the governor, so that some 
of the settlements had time to 
put themselves in a state of de- 
fense. From this time there was 
almost continual war with the 
Indians for many years. 

King James did not like the 
Virginia Company after it passed 
into the hands of those who wished 
to establish the liberties of the people, 
and he made many efforts to get it out of their control. 
In 1624 the company was dissolved, and the colony was 
put under the government of the king. But the king, 
when he put down the Virginia Company, promised 
to the colony all the liberties which thev then enjoyed. 
This promise was not well kept by his successors in 
after-years ; the Virginians were often oppressed by the 
governors sent to them, and in 1639 one Kemp, the 
secretary of the colony, seems to have run away to 
England with the Great Charter of 161 8, of which no 
copy can now be found. But the right to pass laws in 
the General Assembly was never quite taken away. 




THE COMING OF THE PILGRIMS. 



Z7 



CHAPTER VI r. 



THE COMING OF THE PILGRIMS. 




In the seventeenth century (that is, 
between the year 1600 and the 3'ear 
1700) there was much religious per- 
secution. In some countries the 
Catholics persecuted the Protest- 
ants, in other countries the Protest- 
ants persecuted the Catholics, and sometimes one kind 
of Protestant persecuted another. There were people 
in England who did not like the ceremonies of the The sep: 
Church of England, as established b}- law. These were 
called Puritans. Some of these went so far as to sepa- 
rate themselves from the Established Church, and thus 
got the name of Separatists. They were persecuted in 
England, and many of them fled to Holland. 

Among these were the members of a little Separat- The Piig 

" ^ ^ in Hollar 

1st congregation in Scrooby, in the north of England, 
whose pastor's name was John Robinson. In 1607, the 
year in which Jamestown was settled, these persecuted 
people left England and settled in Holland, where they 
lived about thirteen years, most of the time in the city 
of Leyden. Then they thought they would like to plant 
a colony in America, where they could be religious in 
their own way. These are the people that we call " The 
Pilgrims," on account of their wanderings for the sake 
of their religion. 

About half of them were to go first. The rest went 
down to the sea to say farewell to those who were going. 





THE COMIXG OF THE PILGRIMS. 



39 




It was a sad parting, as tlicy all knelt down on the 
shore and prayed together. The Pilgrims came to 
America in a ship called the Mayflower. There 
were about a hundred of them, and they had 
a stormy and wretched passage. They intend- 
ed to go to the Hudson River, but their cap- 
tain took them to Cape Cod. After exploring 

the coast north of that cape for some distance, they se- The voyage to 
lected as a place to land a harbor which had been called Mayflower. 
Plymouth on the map prepared by Captain John Smith, 
who had sailed along this coast in an open boat in 1614. 

All the Indians who had lived at this iilace had died The landing of 

. . the Pilgrims. 

a few years before of a pestilence, and the Pilgrims 
found the Indian fields unoccupied. They first landed at 
Plymouth on the nth day of December, 1620, as the 
days were then counted. This is the same as the 21st of 
December now, the mode of counting ha\ing changed 
since that time. (Through a mistake, the 22d of Decem- 
ber is sometimes kept in New England as " Forefathers' 
Day.") Before landing, the Pilgrims drew up an agree- 
ment by which they promised to be governed. 

The bad voyage, the poor food with which the}' were Hair of the 

Pilgrims die. 

provided, and a lack of good shelter in a climate colder 
than that from which they came, had their natural effect. 
Like the first settlers at Jamestown, they were soon 
nearly all sick. Forty-four out of the hundred Pil 
grims died before the winter was ended, and by 
the time the first year was over half of them 
were dead. The Pilgrims were afraid of the 
Indians, some of whom had attacked the first 
exploring party that had landed. To prevent 
the savages from finding out how much the colony 




40 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



cquaint- 
ith the 




Myles i 
and the 



Plymout 
with Ma 



nited 
chu- 



had been weakened by disease, they leveled all the 
graves, and planted Indian corn over the place in which 
the dead were buried. 

One day, after the winter was over, an Indian walked 
into the village and said in English, " Welcome, English- 
men." He was a chief named Samoset, who had 
learned a little English from the fishermen on the 
coast of Maine. Samoset afterward brought with 
him an Indian named Squanto, who 
had been carried away to England by 
a cruel captain many years before, and 
then brought back. Squanto remained 
with the Pilgrims, and taught them how to 
plant their corn as the Indians did, by putting 
cme or two fish into ever}^ hill for manure. 
He taught them many other things, and acted as 
their interpreter in their trading with the Indians. He 
told the Indians that the}' must keep peace with the 
white men, who had the pestilence stored in their cellar 
along with the gunpowder ! The neighboring chief, 
Massasoit, was also a good friend to the Pilgrims as 
long as he lived. 

Captain Myles Standish was the military commander 
at Plymouth. He dealt severely with any Indians sup- 
posed to be hostile. Finding that certain of the Massa- 
chusetts Indians were planning to kill all the whites, he 
and some of his men seized the plotters suddenlv and 
killed them with the knives which the Indians wore sus- 
pended from their own necks. 

The people of Plymouth sulTcred much from scarcity 
of food for several 3-ears. They had often nothing but 
oysters or clams to eat for a long time together, and no 



THE COMING OF THE PILGRIMS. 



41 



^ £81^:%^ 



) 



drink but water. They held their meetings in a square 
house on top of a hill. On the flat roof of this house 
were six small cannon. The people were called to 
church by the beating of a drum. The men marched 
in procession to church, followed by the governor, the 
elder or preacher, and Captain Standish. They carried 
loaded fire-arms with them when they 
went to meeting on Sunday, and put 
them where they could reach them 
easily. The town was surrounded by 
a stockade, and had three gates. Eld- 
er Brewster was the religious teacher 
of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, their 
minister, John Robinson, having stayed 
with those who waited in Holland, and died 
there. It is said that Brewster, when he had 
nothing but shell-fish and water for dinner, would 
cheerfully give thanks that they were " permit- 
ted to suck of the abundance of the 
seas and of the treasures 
hid in the sand." Like the 
Jamestown people, the\ 
tried a plan of living out 
of a common stock, 
but with no better suc- 
cess. In 1624 each 
family received a small 
allotment of land for 
its own, and from that 
time there was always 
plenty to eat in Plym- 
outh. Others of the 




4^ 



H/STOJiy OF THE VXITED STATES. 



Pilgrims came to them from Holland, as well as a few 
emigrants from England. Phmouth Colony was, next 
to Virginia, the oldest colony of all, but it did not grow 
very fast, and in 1692, by a charter from King William 
III. it was united with Massachusetts, of which its terri- 
tory still forms a part. 



CHAPTER VIII. 




*^r*N-. 



t CROMWELU 



Settlers along chuSettS BaV 
the New Eng- 



The English 
Puritans. 



THE CUMING OF THE TLRITANS. 

Before the Pilgrims had become comfortably set- 
tled in their new home, other English people came 
to various parts of the New England coast, to 
the northward of Plymouth. About 1623 a few 
scattering immigrants, mostlv fishermen, traders 
with the Indians, and timber-cutters, began to 
settle here and there along the sea about Massa- 
and in what afterward came to be the 
colonies of New Hampshire and Maine. 

We have seen in the preceding chapter that tiie Pil- 
grims belonged to that partv which had separated itself 
from the Church of England, and so got the name of 
Separatists. But there were also a great many people 
who did not like the ceremonies of the Established 
Church, but who would not leave it. These were called 
Puritans, because they sought to purify the Church from 
what thev thought to be wrong. They formed a large 
part of the English people, and at a later time, under 
Oliver Cromwell, they got control of England. But at 



THE COMING OF THE PURITANS. 



43 




PURITAN GENTLEM 



the time of the settlement of New England the party 
opposed to the Puritans was in power, and the Puritans 
were persecuted. The little colony of Plymouth, which 
had now got through its sufferings, showed them a 
way out of their troubles. Many of the Puritans 
began to think of emigration. 

In 1628, when Plymouth had been settled almost 
eight years, the Massachusetts Company was formed. 
This was a company like the Virginia Company 
that had governed Virginia at first. The Massachu- 
setts Company was controlled by Puritans, and pro- The Massachu- 

" .... . setts Company 

posed to make settlements within the territory granted sends out its 

to it in New England. The first party sent out by this ^^^^ '^° °"^' 

company settled at Salem in 1628. Other settlers were 

sent the next 3-ear. 

But in 1630 a new and bold move was made. The The great mi- 
gration to Mas- 
Massachusetts Company resolved to change the place sachusetts, 1630. 

of holding its meetings from London to its new colony 
in America. This would give the people in the colony, 
as members of the company, a right to govern them- 
selves. The principal founder of the Massachusetts Col- 
ony and the most remarkable and admirable man among 
its leaders was John Winthrop, who was born in 1588. 
He was chosen Governor of the Massachusetts Company 
in order that he might bring the charter and all the ma- 
chinery of the government with him to America. When 
this proposed change became known in England, many 
of the Puritans desired to go to America. Winthrop, 
the new governor, set sail for Massachusetts Bay in 1630 
with the charter and about a thousand people. The 
governor and a part of his company settled at Boston, 
and that became the capital of the colony. 




44 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



Character of 
Winthrop. 



Emigration to 
New England. 



Winthrop was almost continually governor until he 
died, in 1649. He was a man of great wisdom. When 
another of the leading men in the colony wrote him an 
angry letter, he sent it back, saying that " he was not 
willing to keep such a provocation to ill-feeling by him." 
The writer of the letter answered, " Your overcoming 
vourself has overcome me." When the colony had little 
food, and Winthrop's last bread was in the oven, he di- 
vided the small remainder of his flour among the poor. 
That very day a ship-load of pro- 
visions came. Winthrop dressed 
plainly, drank little but water, and 
labored with his hands among his 
servants. He counted it the great 
comfort of his life that he had a 
" loving and dutiful son." This son 
was also named John. He was a 
man of excellent virtues, and was 
the first Governor of Connecticut. 
None of the colonies was set- 
tled more rapidly than Massachu- 
setts. Twenty thousand people 

JOHN WINTHROP. 

came between 1630 and 1640, for 
New England was at this time regarded as a great refuge 
for the Puritans who suffered persecution in England. 
The Puritans themselves were not free from the intoler- 
ance of the times ; and when a new religious partv, led 
by a Mrs. Hutchinson, arose in Boston soon after the set- 
tlement, the adherents to the new doctrines were banish- 
ed for disturbing the peace of the infant colony. .About 
the same time there came the war with the Pequot In- 
dians, about which more will be told in another chapter. 




THE COMING OF THE PURITAXS. 



45 




Some of the Puritans in Massachu- 
setts were dissatisfied with their lands. 
In 1635 and 1636 these people, under 
the leadership of a great divine named 
Thomas Hooker, crossed through the 
unbroken woods to the Connecticut 
River and settled the towns of Wind- 
sor, Wethersfield, and Hartford. There- 
were already trading-posts on the Con- 
necticut River ; but this emigration of 
Hooker and his friends was the real 
beginning of the Colony of Connecticut. Another col- 
ony was planted in 1638 in the region about New Haven. 
It was made up of Puritans under the lead of the Rev. 
John Davenport. In 1665 the New Haven Colony was 
united with Connecticut. 

In 1636 Roger Williams, a minister at Salem, in Mas- 
sachusetts, was banished from that colony on account of 
his peculiar views on several subjects, religious and 
political. One of these was the doctrine that every man 
had a right to worship God without interference by the 
government, a very strange doctrine in that day. Will- 
iams went to the head of Narragansett Bay, and estab- 
lished a settlement 
on the principle of 
entire religious lib- 
erty. The disputes 
in Massachusetts 
resulted in other 
settlements of ban- 
ished people on 
Narragansett Bav, 



1636. New 
en Colony 



Rog 


r Willi 


am 


lays 


the fou 


nd 


tions of Rhc 


de 


Islar 


d, 1636. 






46 



Jf /STORY OF THE U. VI TED STATES. 



I Hampshire. 




wliich were all at length united in one colony, from 
which came the present State of Rhode Island. 

The first settlement oi New Hampshire was made 
at Little Harbor, near Portsmouth, in 1623. The 
population of New Hampshire was increased by those 
who left the Massachusetts Colony on account of the 
religious disputes and persecutions there. Other set- 
tlers came from England. But there was much con- 
fusion and dispute about land-titles and about govern- 
ment, in consequence of which the colony was set- 
tled slowly. New Hampshire was several times joined 
to Massachusetts, but it was finally separated from it 
in 1 74 1. 

As early as 1607, about the time \'irginia was set- 
tled, a colon)^ was planted in Maine. Like the people 
who settled Virginia, those who came to Maine in 1607 
were looking particular!)- for gold-mines. The hard 
winter and other things discouraged them, and they 
went back the year after they came. Other settlers 
planted themselves on the coast for a time about 1622 
and 1623, but the first permanent settlement seems to 
have been the one made at Pemaquid in 1625. The 
pioneers of Maine were not religious refugees, but men 
interested in the fisheries, the trade with the Indians, 
and the cutting of timber. The)- submitted to the gov- 
ernment of Massachusetts in 1652 ; but the " District of 
Maine," as it was called, sufTered disorders from con- 
flicting governments set up under different authorities 
until it was at length annexed to Massachusetts by the 
charter given to that colony in 1692. It remained a 
part of Massachusetts until it was admitted to the 
Union as a separate State in 1820. 



THE COMING OF THE PURITANS. 



47 





The New England colonies 
were governed under charters, 
which left them, in general, free 
from interference from England. 
Plymouth, Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, New Haven, and Rhode 
Island were the only colonies on 
the continent that had the privi- 
lege of choosing their own gov- 
ernors. In 1684 the first Massa- 
chusetts charter was taken away, 
and after that the governors of 
Massachusetts were appointed by 

the king, but under a new charter given in 1692 the go 
colony enjoyed the greater part of its old liberties. ur 



rP-emaquid^i, 



y^ 



Plymouth^-,,- :^:i 
ncei '620. \ :) 



Providei 
HaHfSrd '^36 

1635 



nent in 
/ Eng- 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE COMING OF THE DUTCH. 




While Captain John captain john 

Smith sends a 

Smith was in V^irginia (see map to Hudson 

Chapter IV), he had a notion 

that there was a passage into 

the Pacific Ocean somewhere 

to the north of the Virginia 

Colony. He may have got this 

opinion from some old maps, or 

from misunderstanding something 

that the Indians told him while he 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Hudson ex- 
plores Hudson 



was exploring the Chesapeake Bay. He sent to his old 
friend Henry Hudson, in England, a letter and a map, 
which showed a way to go by sea into the Pacific Ocean, 
a little to the north of Virginia. 

Henry Hudson was an Englishman already known as 
a bold explorer. Of his birth and early life nothing is 
known, nor is an3'thing known of the early voyages by 
which he became famous. In 1607, in the employ of an 
English compan\% he undertook to find the much-desired 
route to China by sailing straight across the north pole. 
He failed, of course, though he got farther north than 
any other voyager had done. In the next year, 1608, 
for the same company, he tried to find a passage to the 
East Indies by sailing to the northeast. He did not 
succeed, but he sets down in his journal that some of 
his company saw one day a mermaid, with a body like 
a woman and a tail like a porpoise. Intelligent people 
believed in such monsters in that day. In 1609, soon 
after getting John Smith's letter and map, Hudson 
went to Holland and hired himself to the Dutch 
East India Company. This company sent him out 
with a little yacht, called the Half-Moon, manned 
by twenty sailors, to find a passage to China, by 
going around the north coast of Europe — a pas- 
sage only discovered in our own time. But Hud- 
apLe son found the sea in that direction so full of ice 
that he was obliged to give up the attempt to get 
to China in that way. So, remembering John Smith's 
map, he set sail for America, contrary to the orders of 
his employers. 

Hudson sailed as far to the south as the entrance to 
the Chesapeake, and then explored the coast to the 



THE COMIXG OF THE DUTCH. 



49 




northward. He went into Delaware Bay, and afterward 
came to anchor in New York Harbor. In hope of find- 
ing a way to the East Indies, he kept on up the river, 
which we now call Hudson River, for eleven days. But 
when he had sailed up its lovely reaches, and had passed 
through the bold highlands into the upper waters and 
so on, in view of the Catskills, nearly as far as to 
the place where Albany is now, Hudson became 
satisfied that the road to China did not lie there, 
and so he turned his ship about, sailed down the 
river, and returned to Europe. In the year fol- 
lowing he tried to find a way to China by the 
northwest, but, while sailing in what is now 
called Hudson Bay, part of his crew rose 
against him, and, putting Hudson and some of 
his men into an open boat, sailed away, leaving them 
to perish. 

Though Hudson was an Englishman, he made his '^''^ '^""''' "'''''" 

* ^ lish a fur-trade on 

voyage into Hudson River for the Dutch, and the very Hudson River. 
ne.xt year the Dutcli merchants began a fur-trade with 
the Indians on the river that Hudson had discovered. 
In the year that followed (1611) they explored the coast 
northeastward beyond Boston Harbor, and to the south- 
ward they sailed into the Delaware River, claiming all 
this countr\-, which was then without any inhabitants 
but Indians. They called this territory New Nether- 
land. Netherland is another name for what we call 
Holland. 

The Dutch had built a trading-post, called a " fort," The Dutch plant 

a colony in New 

at what is now Albany, and perhaps others like it else- Netheriand. 
where, but they did not send out a colon)- of people to 
settle the country until 1623. Then two principal set- 



50 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




tlements were made, the one at Al- 
ban}-, the other at Wallabout, now 
part of Brooklyn. But the ishind 
of Manhattan, on which New York 
now stands, had been the center 
of the Dutch trade, and it soon be- 
came the little capital of the colony. 
The town which grew about the 
fort, that stood at the south end of 
what is now New York city, was called by the 
/J Dutch New Amsterdam, after the principal city 
■■^■^ of Holland, their own country. It was a thrifty 
village, with a considerable trade with the Indian 
country in wampum, smoked oysters, and beaver-skins. 
The Dutch also had trading - posts on the Con- 
ng of New necticut River and on the Delaware River. But on 

:n, and its 

est by the tlic Connccticut River they got into trouble with 
the English settlers, who claimed the whole of that 
country, and presently crowded the Dutch out of it. 
On the Delaware River the Dutch had trouble with 
a company of Swedes, who had planted a colony 
there in 1638. This colony the Swedes called New 
Sweden, just as the Dutch called theirs New Neth- 
erland, and as the English called their northern col- 
onies New England, while the French named their 
settlements in Canada New France. After a great 
deal of quarreling between the Swedes and Dutch, 
the Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, in 1655, mus- 
tered a little fleet with six or seven hundred men, 
and, sailing to the Delaware River, captured New 
Sweden, and it became a part of New Nether- 

PETER STUtVESANT. Umd. 




THE COMLVG OF THE DUTCH. 



51 



But the English at this time claimed that all the ter- The 
ritory between Virginia and New England belonged to eriai 
England. They said that all that coast had been discov- 
ered by Cabot for Henry VII more than a century and 
a half before. In 1664, in time of peace, four English 
ships appeared in the harbor of New Amsterdam and 
demanded its surrender. Stout old Peter Stuyvesant, 
the lame governor who had ruled in 
the Dutch colonies for ^^ 

many } ears, resolved 
to fight. But the 
city was weak 



English con 
New Neth- 




Tf-^ ' ^ — -^^.^ f ' . ' " and without 

' - ' loi tihcations, and 

the people, seeing the 
uselessness of contending against the ships, persuaded 
Stuyvesant to surrender. The name New Amsterdam 
was immediately changed to New York, the whole prov- 
ince having been granted to the Duke of York. 

At the time of the surrender New York city had New 

becor 

but fifteen hundred people, most of them speaking the York. 
Dutch language. To-day there are nearly a thousand 



Amsterdarr 
les New 



52 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



times as many people in the city. Many thousands of 
the inhabitants of New York and many in other States 
have descended from the first Dutch colonists and bear 
the old Dutch names. The Dutch settlers were gener- 
ally industrious, frugal, and religious. 




CHAPTER X. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND AND THE CAROLINAS. 



Virginii 
cut dow 




By the second charter given for planting the 
" First Colony of Virginia," as it was called, its breadth 
was cut down to four hundred miles along the sea- 
coast. Virginia had formerly included all that the 
English claimed in America. Part of the four hun- 
red miles was occupied by the Dutch in New Jersey 
and Delaware. And the territory of Virginia was, 
at length, further cut down by the taking of 
another part of it to form Maryland for Lord 
Baltimore. 
'%^J\ George Calvert, afterward Lord Baltimore, was 

a Secretary of State to James I. In 1621 he plant- 
ed a colon)- in Newfoundland, which he called Ava- 



MARYLAXD AND THE CAROLIXAS. 



53 




Ion. In 1627 he went to his colony in Newfound- 
land, but the climate was so cold that in 1629 he 
went to Virginia. Before going to Virginia he 
wrote to the king, begging for territory to plant a 
colony there. Lord Baltimore had become a Ro- 
man Catholic at a time when there were severe 
laws in England against Catholics. Even in 
the colonies Catholics were not allowed ; and 
the Virginians took advantage of the orders 
given them from England to insist that Balti- 
more must take an oath declaring that the 
king was the head of the Church. As a Catholic he Lord Baltimore's 

11 1 1 • 11 ,^. . . Ill- 1 '''■^* colony fails. 

could not do this, and the V irgimans bade him leave 
the colony. 

Lord Baltimore returned to England, and got the Maryland grant- 

. . ed to Lord Bal- 

king, Charles L to give him a slice of Virginia north timore. 

of the Potomac. This country- King Charles named 

Maryland, in honor of the queen, his wife. For this 

Baltimore was to pay to the king two Indian arrows 

every year in recognition of the king's sovereignty. 

But, before Lord Baltimore could send out a colony, 

he died. 

The territor}- was then granted to Lord Baltimore's Maryland plant- 
ed by the second 

son, the second Lord Baltimore. He was given all Lord Baltimore, 
the powers of a monarch. The first 
settlers were sent out in 1633, and 
reached Maryland in 1634. This com- 
pany was composed of twenty gentle- 
men and three hundred laboring-men, 
and the first governor was Leonard 
Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore's 
SECOND LORD BALTIMORE. brothcr. Roiiian Catholic priests were 




%J0n'^._ 



Early yeai 
Maryland. 



CA HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

r 




I -. 



with them, '"^-^ 
and at their 
landing they set 
up a cross. But there 
were also a good man}' Prot- 
estants in the party, and Balti- 
more had resolved from the beginning that there should 
be no persecution of any Christians on account of re- 
ligion in his new province. In almost ever}' country 
in the world at that time the established religion, of 
whatever sort it might be, was enforced by law. 

The colonists came in two ships called the Ark and 
the Dove ; they settled first at a place which they called 
St. Mary's, on the St. Mary's River, not far from the 
Potomac. They bought from the Indians living on the 
place their village and corn-ground, and for the rest of 
that season they lived in half of the village with the In- 



MAJ?VLAX£> AND THE CAROLIXAS. 



55 




dians. The colony had man}' troubles 
and several little civil wars in its early 
years. These mostly grew out of the 
religious differences of the people. But 
after a while Maryland prospered and 
grew rich by raising tobacco. The 
money of Maryland as of Virginia was 
tobacco, and the two colonies were 
much alike in traits of their business and social life. 

After the settlement of New England by Puritans, n^ 
and Maryland by Catholics, there was a period of about 
thirty years in which no new colonies were planted. 
In this period occurred the Great Rebellion in England, 
in which Charles I was beheaded, and his son Charles II 
was kept out of England by the Puritans under Oliver 
Cromwell. But, after Cromwell's death, Charles II was 
brought back to the throne of England in 1660. This 
is known as the Restoration. 

After the Restoration there was a new interest in cj 
colonies. New York was taken from the Dutch, and to 
new colonies were planned. King Charles II was a 
very thoughtless, self-indulgent monarch, who freely 
granted great tracts of land in America to several 
of his favorites. To some of his courtiers he gave, 
in 1663, a large territor}' cut off from Virginia on 
the south, which had been known before this time 
as Carolana, but was now called Carolina, from 
Carolus, the Latin form of King Charles's name. 
This territory included what we call North and 
South Carolina. The eight noblemen and gentlemen 
to whom this territory was granted were called " The 
Lords Proprietors of Carolina." 



olina granted 
light proprie- 




56 



HISTORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 



Beginning of set- 
tlements in North 
Carolina in 1653. 




The Caroli 
Constitutio 




In the northeastern corner of this territory, on the 
Chowan River, a settlement had been made by people 
from Virginia, under the lead of a minister named Roger 
Green, in 1653. This was ten years before the coun- 
try was granted to these lords proprietors, and the land 
belonged to Virginia when they settled there. A set- 
tlement was made at Port Royal, in South Carolina, in 
1670, but the people afterward moved to where the city 
of Charleston now stands. The foundation of this city 
was laid in 1680. A large number of Huguenots, or 

French Protestants, settled in South Carolina about 

this time. 

As America was a new countrv, people who had 
projects of any kind were always for trying them in 
some American colon}^ The lords proprietors of Caro- 
lina got up what they thought a beautiful system of gov- 
ernment. They proposed to have Carolina chiefly ruled 
by noblemen, who were to be divided into three orders, 
one above another. These noblemen were to be called 
palatines, landgraves, and caciques. They attached to 
this constitution a plan for laying off their territory into 
large square tracts of several thousand acres each. These 
were to be the property of their nobility and the pro- 
prietors ; the people were to be tenants paying rent. 
The men who adopted this plan had never seen Amer- 
ica. They knew nothing of the habits and necessities 
of settlers in a new country. Constitutions can not 
be made to order in this fashion ; they must grow out 
of the circumstances and character of the people. The 
clumsy arrangements of the proprietors all failed when 
they tried to apply them. Their degrees of nobility and 
the ofificers with titles were of no use in the woods of 



MARYLAND AXD THE CAROLIXAS. 



57 







l^^^^/Charleston. 1680. 
^^^ort Royal, 1670. 

North Carolina Progress of the 



America ; their people did not care to rent 
land when so much lay vacant, and the 
machinery of their constitution was ridicu- 
lous when their agents tried to put it in 
motion. 

The Carolina colonies grew slowly 
at first. The introduction of rice- 
culture in 1696 proved of great ad- 
vantage to South Carolina, which im- 
mediately became prosperous. The 
people took to raising large herds of cattle which change of'gov 
roamed in the woods. This colony was involved in ^'■"'"'" ■ 
many local dissensions and petty civil wars. The Caro- 
lina proprietors, who had the appointment of govern- 
ors to both colonies, conducted their affairs in a selfish 
spirit. In 17 19 the South Carolina people rose in re- 
bellion, marched into Charleston, and threw off the yoke 
of the lords proprietors. In 1729 the king bought out 
the interest of all the proprietors except one, and after 
that period both North and South Carolina were gov- 
erned as royal colonies, the governors receiving their 
appointment from the king, while the laws were made 
by a General Assembly elected by the people and a 
Council appointed by the king. 



58 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




8C0TCH WOMAN 



£ast and West Yorlc bcforc it was conqucred 

afterward became King of England, as James II 




CHAPTER XI. 

THE COMING OF THE QUAKERS AND OTHERS TO THE 
JERSEYS AND PENNSYLVANIA. 

We have seen that the Dutch territory of New 
Netherland extended at first to the Connecticut River 
on the east and to the Delaware River on the south. 
This included what we now know as New Jerse}', in 
which numbers of Dutch people had settled before 
the English took possession of New Netherland in 
1664. Charles II, with his accustomed lavishness, gave 
away New Netherland to his brother the Duke of 

This Duke of York 
James 

kept the portion of it that is now called New York, 
which name it took from his own title. The part 
now called New Jersey he gave to Lord John Berke- 
ley and Sir George Carteret, who after a few years 
sold their interest to others. In 1674 the proprietors 
of New Jersey divided it into the colonies of East and 
West Jersey. 

It was a time of religious persecution. Many people 
emigrated to the colonies in order to get a chance to 
be religious in their own wav, and the proprietors of 
the New Jersey colonies promised to all who came lib- 
erty to worship in the way of their choice. The people 
of Scotland, who were Presbyterians, suffered horribly 
from persecutions after the restoration of Charles II, 
and East Jersey received many Scotch emigrants, driven 
out of their own country by the cruelt)' of the gov- 



THE COMING OF THE QUAKERS. 



59 



i come to 
d West 



ernment. Some people from New England also moved scotch people 

come to New 

into East Jersey. jersey. 

The religious sect most severely persecuted in Eng- 
land after the restoration of the king was the Soci- 
ety of Friends, whose members are sometimes called 
Quakers. The conscientious refusal of the Friends to Quak 

. . East 

take oaths in courts of law, their unwillingness to serve jerse 
as soldiers, and their refusal to take off their hats to 
people in authority, were deemed very serious offenses 
in that day. They were not only whipped, fined, and 
imprisoned in England, but also in Virginia, while in 
Massachusetts they were whipped and banished, and 
some of them were 
put to death for re- 
turning to the col- 
ony after banish- 
ment. Some of the 
people of this perse- 
cuted society came 
to East Jersey, but 
more to West Jer- 
sey, which had been 
bought by certain 
leading Friends. 

Among those 
who had to do with 
the management of 

the West Jersey colony was a famous Quaker preacher 
named William Fenn. He was born in London in 1644, 
and was son to Admiral William Fenn, who gained re- 
nown for the part he took in the English wars with the 
Dutch. The younger Fenn first came under the in- 




5o HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

fluence of the Friends, or Quakers, while he was a stu- 
dent at Oxford, and he was expelled from the university, 
with others, for the resistance they made to certain re- 
ligious ceremonies introduced at that time. His father 
sent him to Paris, and he became an accomplished man 
of the world. But he afterward became a Friend, which 
so enraged the old admiral that he turned his son 
out of the house. It is pleasant to know, however, that 
in later years the father and son became reconciled. 
William Penn was repeatedly imprisoned for his re- 
ligious views, but he boldly asserted in the English 
courts the great principle of religious liberty. He 
traveled into Wales, Ireland, Holland, and Germany, in 
his preaching journeys, and many of his acquaintances 
in those countries afterward came to Pennsylvania. 
Though Penn would never take off his hat in the 
presence of the king, he had considerable influence at 
court, which he used to lessen the sufferings of the 
Quakers and others. 
Pennsylvania It was probably whllc Penn was engaged in the 

William Penn. affairs of West Jersey that he observed that the terri- 
tory on the other side of the Delaware was not oc- 
cupied except by a few Swedes, who had come over 
to the old colony of New Sweden before Peter Stuy- 
vesant conquered it for the Dutch. William Penn had 
a claim against the King of England for a consider- 
able sum of money due to his father. The king was 
in debt, and found it hard to pa}' what he owed. 
Penn, therefore, persuaded Charles II to settle the 
debt by granting him a territory on the west side ol 
the river Delaware. This new territory the king called 
Pennsylvania, which means something like Penn's For- 



THE COMING OF THE QUAKERS. 



6i 




est. The name was given in honor of Penn's father, 
the admiral. 

What is now the State of Delaware was also put De 
under Penn's government by the Duke of York. Every- 
thing was done with ceremony in those days. When 
Penn got to New 
Castle, in Dela- 
ware, its govern- 
ment was trans- 
ferred to him 
in the following 
way : The key to 
the fort at New 
Castle was de- 
livered to him. 
With this he 
locked himself into the fort and then let himself out, 
in sign that the government was his. To show that 
the land with the trees on it belonged to him, a piece 
of sod with a twig in it was given to him. Then a 
porringer filled with water from the river was put into 
his hands, that he might be lord of the rivers as well 
as of the land. 

Penn sent his first emigrants to Pennsylvania in Penn settles 

° Pennsylvania. 

1681. Philadelphia, where they landed, was yet a 
woods, and the people had to dig holes in the river- 
banks to live in through the winter. Nearly thirty ves- 
sels came to the new colony during the first year. 

Although Pennsylvania was the last colony settled ''^p''' ?"-owth oi 

'^ J ■' Pennsylvania. 

except Georgia, it soon became one of the most popu- 
lous and one of the richest. Before the Revolution, 
Philadelphia had become the largest town in the thir- 



62 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The two Je 

united. 



teen colonies. This was chiefl}- owing to the very free 
government that William Peon founded in his colony. 
Not only English, but Welsh and Irish people, and 
many thousands of industrious Germans, came to Penn- 
sylvania. People were also attracted by the care that 
Penn took to maintain friendly relations with the In- 
dians, and to satisfy them for their lands. Another 
thing which drew people both to Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey was the fact that the land was 
not taken up in large bodies, as it was in 
New York and Virginia, for instance. In 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey the poor man 
could get a farm of his own. 

By the sale and division of shares, the pro- 
prietaries of both East and West Jersey be- 
came too numerous to manage their govern- 
ments well, and at length disorders arose which 
they were not able to suppress. In 1702 the govern- 
eys ment of both provinces was transferred to Queen Anne, 
and East and West Jersey were again united into the 
one province of New Jersey. But even to this day, in 
common speech, one sometimes hears the State of New 
Jersey spoken of as " The Jerseys " by people who do 
not know that two hundred years ago there were two 
colonies of that name. Pennsylvania remained in the 
hands of the Penn family, who appointed its governors, 
till the American Revolution. 




THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA. 




CHAPTER XII. 

THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA, AND THE COMING OF 
THE GERMANS, IRISH, AND FRENCH. 

Penn's settlement at Philadelphia was made, as 

we have seen, in 1681. This was seventy-four years 

after the settlement of Jamestown. In seventy-four 

years, which is not a very long lifetime, all the colonies 

were begun except one. But after the settlement of Georgia pro- 
jected. 
Pennsylvania there passed fifty-one years more before 

another colony was begun. As the borders of Carolina 
were supposed to reach to the Spanish territory in Flor- 
ida, and as New England touched the French territory in 
Canada, there appeared to be no room for any more colo- 
nies, until it was suggested that a slice might be taken 
off the south side of South Carolina, and a new colony be 
wedged in between Carolina and the Spanish colony in 
Florida. Indeed, long before Georgia as a separate col- 
ony was thought of, some benevolent people 
had the notion of settling " the south parts of 
Carolina," as they called what was afterward 
named Georgia, with distressed English peo- 
ple. But the project did not come to any- 
thing until it was taken up by 
General Oglethorpe, a most 
energetic and benevolent man. 
James Edward Oglethorpe 
was born in London in 1688. 
He was in the war of the 
Austrians against the Turks 





.r, ^/Charleston . 1680. 
^ort Royal, 1670. 
C^'Savannah, 1732. 



64 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



in 17 16, and held a command under Prince Eugene 
in the brilliant and desperate campaign of 171 7, which 
ended in the surrender of Belgrade. He returned to 
England in 1722, and served in Parliament for thirty- 
two years afterward. He was opposed to the cruel 
system of imprisoning poor debtors which then pre- 
vailed, and he did much to improve the condition of 
this unhappy class. He was also interested in the efforts 
then made to convert the black slaves in the colonies 
to Christianity. 
Oglethorpe's jn settling Georgia, the views of Oglethorpe and his 

plans. 

associates were most benevolent. There had been much 
wild speculation in England, by which multitudes of 
people were ruined. Oglethorpe wished to provide a 
home for these, where they might in a new country 
hope to secure a competency. There was at this time 
much sympathy in England for the Protestants, who 
were suffering persecution in several of the countries 
on the continent of Europe, and Oglethorpe hoped to 
make the new colony a refuge for these. He also pro- 
posed to make his colony a military barrier against the 
encroachments of the Spaniards in Florida, who laid 
claim to all of South Carolina. In order that his peo- 
ple might not live in idleness, he did not permit any 
slaves to be bought ; to make them temperate, he for- 
bade the importation of rum. Georgia was thus for a 
while the only non-slaveholding colony, and the only 
place in Europe or America in which the sale of liquors 
was prohibited. 
Visionary ex- Like many other philanthropists, Oglethorpe tried to 

periments. 

do more than was possible. He thought that, by rais- 
ing silk-worms in Georgia, he might save to the Eng- 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA. 



65 



lish the money they paid to the Italians for silk. He 
also tried to raise many valuable tropical plants. There 
was hardly any <jood thino: which needed cloin_s; that 




was not undertaken by the '^^^i|^' 
new colony. Such an enterprise ^ 
appealed strongly to the benevo- 
lent, and many thousands of pounds 
were given to help on this good work. Parlia- 
ment also voted a donation to Georgia. No one 
was allowed to make any profit out of the new col- 
ony, on the seal of which was a device of silk-worms 
spinning, with a motto in Latin which meant, " Not 
for themselves, but for others " (A'i?;/ sibi scd aliis). 

In 1732 Oglethorpe took out his first company of 
a hundred and sixteen people, with whom he began 
the town of Savannah. Many others were added, 
anions: whom were a resriment of Scotch Hiijhlanders, 




66 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



First settlemen 
of Georgia at Sa 
vannah. 



Oglethorpe'! 
plans cause 
satisfaction. 




The governme 
transferred to 






GERMAN 


cou 


TRY WOMAN 


OF 


THAT TIME. 


The c 


oming of 


the G 


ermans. 



some Hebrews, and some persecuted Germans. The 
general bore hardship with the rest, and by brilliant 
management defeated the Spaniards when the}- attacked 
his colony. 

But the people after a while became dissatisfied. 
They were not allowed any hand in making their own 
laws. No man, unless he brought white servants, was 
permitted to own more than fifty acres of land, and 
this land he could not sell or rent or divide among 
his children. His oldest son took it at his death ; if 
he had no son, it went back to the trustees of the col- 
ony. It was thought that by this means the evils of 
wealth and poverty would be prevented. But, like all 
such attempts, this proved a failure, because the people 
felt that such laws interfered with their just liberties, 
and took away all inducements to the improvement of 
their property. 

The complaints of the settlers became ver}- bitter, and 
many of them left the colon}-. In 1752, twenty years 
after the beginning of the settlement, the trustees sur- 
rendered the government to the king. After that, Geor- 
gia was not different from the other colonies. One 
might own as much land as one could get, and sell or 
lease it at one's pleasure. Rum also came in, which cer- 
tainly was no advantage. Slaves were bought, and rice 
and indigo plantations, like those of South Carolina, were 
established. Silk-raising prospered so long as the Brit- 
ish government paid bounties on all that was produced. 
When these were withdrawn, it was no longer profit- 
able. 

The Germans that came to Georgia were not by any 
means the first of these industrious people in the English 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA. 



67 




colonies in America. There were many little sects in 
Germany at that time, and these suffered much persecu- 
tion, from which they were glad to flee. The laws of 
Pennsylvania promised them freedom. Some of these 
sects were opposed to war, and their members emi- 
grated to Penn's colony, where military service was 
not required, because the Society of Friends was also 
opposed to war. The tide of German emigration be- 
came greater and greater after this ; thousands of Ger- 
mans coming to Pennsylvania to escape the miseries 
brought on them by persecution and the wars which 
desolated their country. 

In three years, during the reign of Queen Anne, there 
came to England thirteen thousand poor people from The arriva 
that part of Germany called the Palatinate. These peo- mans. 
pie were called Palatines, and they were seeking to be 
sent to America, their country having been ruined by 
the European wars. Some of these were dispatched to 
Virginia, some to the Carolinas, and some to Mar3land. 
About four thousand were sent to New York to make 
tar and pitch. So wretchedly were these cared for that 
seventeen hundred of the four thousand died at sea or 
soon after landing. The rest were settled on the Hud- 
son River, where the descendants of some of them are 
to-day. Some went to the wilderness farther west. They 
were badly treated in New York, and only allowed ten 
acres of land apiece. Three hundred of them, hearing 
that Germans were well received in Pennsylvania, made 
a bold push through the backwoods of New York, down 
the rivers that flowed into Pennsylvania. From that 
time Germans avoided New York, and thronged more 
than ever into Pennsylvania. 




HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Irish immi 
to the colo 




The migratic 
the south^va 




The Irish that came before the Revolution were 
mostl}- Presbyterians in belief. They had been perse- 
cuted in order to force them into the Church of Eng- 
land. Some of them came to New England about 1718, 
introducing there the spinning of flax and the planting 
of potatoes. There was not a colony to which thev 
did not go; but the greatest tide of Irish immigra- 
tion poured into Pennsylvania. Five thousand Irish 
immigrants arrived in the city of Philadelphia in the 
year 1729. Many of the Irish were bold and enter- 
prising pioneers, opening the wa}- into unknown re- 
gions, and showing great courage in fighting with the 
Indians. 

Pennsylvania filled up with great rapiditv, and, 
when the later Indian wars laid waste its frontiers, 
many of the German and Irish settlers moved south- 
ward into the beautiful and fertile mountain-valleys of 
Virginia. Then, following the lines of open prairies 
and Indian trails east of the mountains, this stream of 
people went onward into the Carolinas. The Irish, in- 
deed, and their children born in America, pushed south- 
ward until they had filled whole counties in North and 
South Carolina. They were also among the first to 
move westward into the Alleghanies, and at length they 
pushed over into the Western countr}-. 

The Huguenots, or French Protestants, rendered un- 
happy by the civil wars and persecutions of the time, 
came to the colonies in large numbers. They settled in 
almost ever)' colony, but more largely in South Carolina 
than elsewhere. 

Notwithstanding the multitudes of Germans, Irish, 
French, and Scotch that came to the colonies, those who 



THE SETTLEMENT OF GE0RGL4. 



6q 



came from England formed much the largest part of The English the 
every colony. The English language prevailed over 
every other. But, until after the Revolution, some de- 
scendants of the Dutch in New York still spoke the 
language of their ancestors, and a few old people yet use 
it. In Pennsylvania, where the Germans tilled wide re- 
gions of country, their speech was preserved through 
the whole colonial period. Bibles and other books were 
printed in German in Pennsylvania, and the language is 
still used in many parts of that State. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HOW THE INDIANS LIVED. 



Before the white people settled America it was in- 
habited by many tribes of the people we call Indians. 
They were called Indians because the first discoverers 
believed America to be a part of India. The Indian 
is of a brown or copper color, with black 
eyes and straight hair. 

In what is now the United States the cloth- 
ing of the Indians was mostl)- made of deer-skin. 
A whole deer-skin was thrown about the shoul- 
ders, a strip of the same material was hung about 
the loins, and the leggins worn in winter were 
also of deer-skin. Some of the Southern Indians 
wore mantles woven from the fiber of a plant which 
now grows in gardens under the name of " Spanish 
bayonet," but which in that day was called " silk- 




HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



The dress of the 
Indians. 



Indian ador 
ments. 



grass." The women wore deer-skin aprons. Women 
of the Northern tribes wore mantles of beaver-skins. 
Shoes, or moccasins, were of deer-skin, sometimes em- 
broidered with porcupine-quills or shell beads. 

The Indian warriors were fond of staining their 
faces in stripes, spots, and splashes of red, yellow, and 
blue. Some of the Virginia Indians wore bears' 
or hawks' claws, and even living snakes, dan- 
ling from their ears ; and sometimes, also, the 
savage Indian warrior would wear the dried 
hand of his dead enemy in the same way. 
The use of such ugly adornment was to 
make the savages seem as fierce and 
terrible as possible. 

Both men and women decorated 
s iliemselves with beads, which they made 
Irom sea -shells. These were called 
" wampum," and were worn in strings, 
or wrought into belts, necklaces, and brace- 
lets. .\s the Indians had no iron, the making 
of wampum was very laborious. A bit of stone 
worked down to the size of a si.\penny nail, 
with a large head, was made fast to a reed or 
cane. Then the Indian workman, hav- 
•;2^'.:; ing chipped off a piece of the shell of 
,oP the hard clam, or a piece of the inside 
of a conch-shell, and worked it down 
to the right size, bored a hole in it by resting the point 
of the drill against the bit of shell held in his hand, 
rolling over and over the other end of the reed against 
his thigh. This slow work being necessary* to make it, 
wampum was highly valued. As soon as the white men 




SILK-GRASS. DRAWN IN 1SS5. 



ffOlV THE /XDIAXS LIVED. 



71 



came, the Indians used iron nails instead of stone drills. 

After a while the Dutch settlers in New Jersey and at 

Albany set up little lathes run with 

treadles, by means of which they could 

make wampum-beads so fast that the 

Indians gave it up. A large 

part of the difference between 

a civilized and a bar- 

baious people 

lies m the 

quicke: 

and easier ways 
of doing things 
among those who have 
the aits of civilization. 
Wampum-belts were sent from 
tribe to tribe with solemn 
messages. They were used in making 
peace and in appealing to allied nations to join in a war. 
Before the white men came, wampum, being very costly 
in human labor, served the purpose of money among 
the savages. With wampum they carried on a trade 
from tribe to tribe. The Indians of the interior sold the 
products of their country to the coast tribes, who were 
wampum-makers. Ornaments made of copper dug out 
of the ground in the Lake Superior region were 
found in North Carolina and Virginia, having 
passed from tribe to tribe in the wav of trade. ' H<-^!'P/' 

When white people opened a trade with '^-^^^Sj^j " 
the Indians, wampum was used for small 
change and beaver-skins for large money. 





72 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



The purple wampum was more valuable than the white. 
As there were few small coins in this country, wampum 
passed for money among the white people, and was for 
a long time almost the only small change in New York 
and elsewhere. It seems curious to think that, when 
the plate was passed in church, nothing was put upon 
it but shell beads. 

Indian houses, or wigwams, were mere tents of bark 
or of mats, supported by poles. Among the Indians 
of the Western prairies, 

skins of animals are used f .^ '^\~la^^^F- 
to cover the Indian 




houses, houses. The wigwams were not divided into rooms. 
The inmates slept on the ground, or sometimes on 
raised platforms. The fire was built in the middle of 
the wigwam, and the smoke found its way out through 
an opening at the top. In some tribes long arbor-like 
houses were built of bark. In these there were fires at 
regular intervals. Two families lived by each fire. A 
picture of one of these long houses, as built by the 



J/OIV THE IXDIAXS LIVED. 



72, 



Iroquois Indians, will be found 
in Chapter XX. In New Mex- 
ico there are Indians who live 
in large houses of stone or 
sun-dried brick. Many fami- 
lies, sometimes all the people 
of a village, inhabit a single 
house. 

The Indian houses had very 
little furniture. There were a 
few mats and skins for bed- 
ding. Some tribes had for 
household use only wooden 
vessels, which they made by burning and scraping out 
blocks of wood, little by little, with no other tools than 
shells or sharp stones. These Indians cooked their food 
by putting water into their wooden bowls and then 
throwing in heated stones. When the stones had made 

the uater hot the} 
put in It uhat- 




EARTHEN POT. 




74 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 





STONE AXE. 



ever they wished to cook. Other tribes knew how to 
make pots of earthenware ; and yet others cut them 
out of soap-stone. Vessels of pottery and soap-stone 
could be set over the fire. Often fish and meat were 
broiled on sticks laid across above the fire ; green corn 
with the husks on it was roasted under the ashes, as were 
also squashes and various roots. Indian corn, put into 
a mortar and pounded into meal, was mixed with water 
and baked in the ashes, or boiled in a pot. Sometimes 
the meal was parched 
and carried in a little 
bag, to be eaten on a 
journey. A few tribes 
near to salt springs had 
salt, the rest used leaves 
of several sorts for sea- 
soning. 

For tilling the ground 
the Indians had rude 
tools ; their hoe was 
made by attaching to a 
stick a piece of deer's horn, or the shoulder-blade of an 
animal, or the shell of a turtle, a bit of wood, or a flat 
stone. They raised Indian corn, beans, squashes, and 
tobacco. They prepared the ground bv girdling the 
trees so as to kill them ; sometimes they burned the 
trees down. Some tribes had rude axes for cutting 
small trees ; these were made of stone. The handle of 
the stone axe was formed by tving a stick to it, or by 
twisting a green withe about it. Sometimes an Indian 
would split open a growing young tree and put the axe 
into the cleft ; when the tree had grown fast around the 




HOiV THE INDIANS LIVED. 



75 




axe he would cut it down 
and shorten it to the 
proper length for a han- 
dle. The Indians had no 
iron. For knives they had 
pieces of bone, sharp 
stones, and shells. 

The Indian procured Making fir 
tire by twirling the end 
of a stick against another 
piece of wood. To give 
this twirling stick a quick 
motion, he wrapped a bow- 
iNDiAN KINDLING FIRE. stHug about it, aud then drew the bow 
swiftly to and fro. 
The most remarkable product of Indian skill was the canoes. 
canoe ; this was made in some tribes by burning out a 
log, little by little, and scraping the charred parts with 
shells, luitil the " dug-out " canoe was sufficiently deep 
and rightly shaped. Many canoes made in this way, 
without any 
other tools 
than shells 



i-<- 




One Indian is seen 
scraping out the 
charred wood, an- 
other is fanning the 
fire, while a third 
is burning down a 



and sharp stones, would carry from twenty to forty 
men. The Northern tribes constructed a more beautiful 



76 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 




irs betw 
tribes. 




canoe, of white-birch bark, stretched on slender wood- 
en ribs, and sewed together with roots and fibers. 
Such canoes were made water-tight by the use of 
gums. In Chapter XVI will be seen a picture of birch- 
bark canoes. 

Among the Indians, the hardest work fell to the 
women. Hunting, gambling, and making war, were the 
occupations of the men. The male Indian was from 
childhood trained to war and the chase. Game and fish, 
with such fruits, nuts, and roots as grew wild in the 
woods and swamps, were the principal dependence of 
the Indians for food. As they suffered much from 
hunger and misery, the population of the country was 
always thin. 

Moreover, the continual wars waged between the 
various tribes, in which women and children as well 
as men were slain, kept the red-men from increasing 
in numbers. Large tracts of country were left un- 
inhabited, because tribes at war dared not live near 
to one another, for fear of surprise. In all the coun- 
try east of the Mississippi River there were but a 
few hundred thousand people ; hardly more than there 
are in one of our smallest States, and not enough, 
if they had all been brought together, to make a 

large citv. 

The coming of the white people made great 
changes in the Indian life. The furs and skins, 

which the Indians did not value, except for neces- 
sary clothing, were articles of luxury and ornament of 
great value in Europe. Many a half-starved 
Indian was clothed in furs that a Eu- 
ropean prince would have prized. The 




BO IV THE INDIANS LIVED. 



77 



Beginning of 
trade with the 



savage readily exxhanged his beautiful beaver coat for a 

bright-colored blanket and thought he had made a good indl 

bargain, though his furs were worth to the white man 

the price of many blankets. The Indians of the region 

about Boston were pleased with the 

trinkets which the Plymouth Pilgiinis 

brought them on a tradnig ti ip 

and the Indian women e\en 

made themselves garments oul 

of boughs and leaves like Mothei 

Eve, that they might trade theii 

jackets of beaver-skin to the 

white people for knickknacks. 

The cheap glass beads 
and tiny bells, such as 
the people of old time 
hung about the necks of 
the hawks with which they 
hunted birds, were greath 
prized by savages. Jew's-harps were 
also much liked by them, and were 
sometimes used in paying them for land. The Indian Articles 
who could possess himself of a copper kettle was a rich 
man in his tribe. It was the irresistible temptation of a 
copper kettle that persuaded Japazaws to beti'av Poca- 
hontas to the Virginia colonists. The cheap iron hatch- 
ets of the trader drove out the stone axes, and knives 
were eagerly bought, but guns were more sought after 
than anything else; and, though there were many laws 
against selling fire-arms to the Indians, there were always 
men who were glad to enrich themselves by this unlaw- 
ful trade. The passion of the savage for intoxicating 




WATER-JARS. 




78 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



drinks was so great that evil men among the traders 
were often able to strip them of all their goods by selling 
them strong liquors. 

The white settlers generally bought the land they 
occupied from the Indians. As land was not worth much, 
the price paid was trifling. Manhattan Island, on which 
New York now stands, was sold to the Dutch, by the 
Indians, for about twenty-four dollars in trading wares. 
The land-sales made trouble, for the lines were not well 
defined, and were often matters of dispute. The Indians 
did not understand business, and the)- sometimes had to 
be paid over and over again for a tract of land. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



EARLY INDIAN WARS. 



Dishon 
and th( 



;5t trader 
Indians. 




SMELL AXE. 



There were, between the two races, occasions 
enough for quarreling. Dishonest white men were sure 
to cheat the ignorant Indians, and the violent among 
the Indians were as sure to revenge themselves. If an 
Indian suffered wrong from one white man, he thought 
he had a right to take vengeance on an)' man, woman, or 
child of the white race when he found opportunity. It 
was an Indian saying that " one pays for another." 
When evil -disposed white men killed and robbed an 
Indian on the island where New York now stands, the 
nephew of the slain Indian, though but a little boy, laid 
it up in his mind to kill some white man in revenge, and 
when he had grown to manhood, he entered the shop of 



EAULY INDIA iV WAS:S. 



79 



an inoffensive mechanic in a lonesome place, killed the 
poor fellow, and felt sure that he had at last done justice 
to his uncle by slaying somebody who 
had never done anybody any harm. 

Then, too, Indians were trained to 
think that war was the only 
worthy occupation of a great 
man. If an Indian had nev- 
er killed an enemy, he was 
nobody ; even the young 
girls scouted him. The 
young men in a tribe were 
therefore always in favor 
of war. 

Many of the white 
people sincerely desired 
to do the Indians good. 
Schools for the educa- 
tion of Indian children 
were set up in Virginia 
and in New England. 
Catholic missionaries la- 
bored among the In- 
dians of Maryland. John 

Eliot, of Massachusetts, preached to thousands of In- 
dians, and translated the whole Bible into their lan- 
guage. He is called the " Apostle to the Indians." 
But, even in trying to do the Indians good, the white 
men offended them. The chiefs and " medicine-men " 
of the Indians did not like to see their ancient customs 
treated with contempt, and their own influence destroyed 
by the new religion. 



J 


p 



cate the Indi/ 



8o 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 




PEACE-PIPE. 



Early Indian mas We havc secii how Suddenly the Indians massacred 

sacres in Virginia. 

the Virginians in 1622. This led to a long war, with 
many treacheries and cruel surprises on both sides. As 
the Virginians found that the Indians did not keep faith 
with them, but used the cloak of peace to get the adyan- 
tage of a sudden surprise, they, on their part, thought it 
allowable to act in bad faith, the niore that they could 
never come at the Indians, who would take their own 
time to strike and flee. Pretending to make peace, the 
colonists sent out, simultaneously, parties to fall on every 
Indian village within their reach. It is said they even 
went so far as to treacherously use poison at a treaty- 
meeting in order to kill certain chiefs. After some j^ears 
the neighboring Indians were subdued or driven off. 

But in 1644 the old chief Opechankano, who had led 
in the first massacre, planned a second. He was so old 
that he could not walk without assistance, and could not 
see, except when his eyelids were held open. He was 
carried to the scene of bloodshed. The Indians had by 
this time secured guns. By a sudden surprise they killed 
about five hundred white people in a single day. But 
they paid dearly for their victory, for the colony had 
grown strong enough to defeat and punish them. They 
were driven away from their villages. Opechankano 
was taken prisoner, and, while a captive, was suddenly 
killed by an infuriated soldier. 

The Pequot war in Connecticut grew out of the 

differences between the Dutch and the English settlers. 

The Pequot war xhc English brought back the Indians whom the Pequot 
"1 '637. 

tribe had just driven away. The Pequots began the war 

by killing some English traders. The attempts of the 

English colonists to conquer this tribe were at first of 




EARLY INDIAX WARS. 




no avail. The Indians were light of foot, and got away 
from men clad in heavy armor. They continued to seize 
and torture to death such English as they could catch. 
In 1637, John Mason, a trained soldier, at the head of a 
company of Connecticut men, with some from Massachu- 
setts, marched into the Pequot country. At Mystic, 
Connecticut, just before daybreak, the Connecticut men 
surrounded the palisaded village of Sassacus, the dread- 
ed Pequot chief. In the first onset Mason set the vil- , ""ir."!!.". 

1 IROQUOIS INDIANS. 

lage on fire. A horrible slaughter followed. Indian 
men, women, and children, to the number of five or six 
hundred, were shot down or burned in the village, or 
killed in trying to escape. In the war which followed 
this attack, the whole Pequot tribe was broken up, and 
the other Indians were so terrified that New England 
had peace for many years after. 

About the same time cruel Indian wars raged be- Indian wars in 

1 T--V r XT XT 1 1 1 / XT T- 1 NcwYork, Mary- 

tween the Dutch of New Netheriand (now New York) isnd, and vir- 
and the Indians in their neighborhood. At one time the ^'"'^' 
Dutch colony was almost overthrown. There was also 
a war between the Marylanders and the Susquehannah 
tribe. In 1656 the Virginians suffered a bitter defeat 
in a battle with the Indians at the place where Rich- 
mond now stands. The brook at this place got the name 
of Bloody Run. 

In 1675 there broke out in New England the terrible King philips 

War 1675 

Indian war known ever since as King Philip's War. 
Philip was the son of Massasoit, the Indian chief who 
had been long a friend to the Plymouth settlers. Philip 
was a proud man, and thought that he was not treated 
with enough respect by the rulers of Plymouth Colony, 
who acted with imprudent boldness in their dealings 



82 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Fight " at the 

Narragansett 

fort. 



with him. He was also irritated because large numbers 
of his people were converted to the Christian religion, 
through the labors of John Eliot. These converted peo- 
ple, or " praying Indians," formed themselves into vil- 
lages, and lived under the government of the Massachu- 
setts colony, by which means Philip's power and impor- 
tance were reduced. 

Philip won some successes at first, and Indians of 
other tribes came to his assistance. Many New Eng- 
land towns were laid in ashes, and hundreds of peo- 
ple were killed or carried away into captivit)'. The 
powerful tribe of Narragansetts gave Philip secret aid, 
and in the winter the white men boldl}' attacked their 
stronghold. This was always known as the " Swamp 
Fight." Hundreds of Indians were slain, and their vil- 
lage burned. The colonists also lost two hundred men 
in this battle, and the Narragansetts took a terrible 
revenge by burning houses and killing people in every 
direction. 

But after a while the white men learned how to fight 
the Indians. Captain Benjamin Church was the most 
famous fighter against the Indians in this war. He was 
tireless, fearless, and full of expedients. He first taught 
the Englishmen to practice the arts of the Indian in war. 
He knew how to manage men, and had great influence 
Captain Church, ovcr them. Hc would cvcn pcTsuadc captive Indians 
to join his band and lead him to the haunts of their 
friends. On approaching a party of concealed Indians, 
one of the Indians who followed Church would hoot 
like an owl or bark like a wolf, or imitate some other 
cry of the forest. These were the pass-words of the 
woods, and, when heard bj* another Indian, a similar cry 




EARLY INDIAN WARS. 



83 




would be returned. Church would thus entrap the In 
dians by the treacher}' of their own friends. 

After a bitter war, in which the white settlements Death o 
suffered so severely that timid people thought the col 
ony of Massachusetts might be destroyed, Philip's 
power was gradually broken, as his warriors 
were most of them killed or captured. Church's 
men at length surrounded Philip in a swamp, 
and, in trying to escape, the chief was killed by 
a deserter from his own tribe. Church let this 
Indian take Philip's scarred hand for a troph}'. 
This he carried about the countr}', making 
money by showing it. 

When Philip was dead, only old Annawon, 
Philip's head-man, remained in the field with a 
party. When Church at last found him, he was shel- Defeat 
tered under some cliffs. Church had but half a dozen 
men with him ; Annawon ten times that number of reso- 
lute braves. But, creeping down the cliffs, while an 
Indian woman was making a noise by pounding corn in 
a mortar. Church succeeded in capturing the guns of the 
Indians, which were stacked at Annawon's feet. Seeing 
his boldness, the Indians thought that Church had sur- 
rounded them with a great many men, and they there- 
fore surrendered. Most of the Indians taken in this 
war were cruelly sold into slavery in Barbadoes. 

Though Philip's war was ended when his tribe had use of 

boat in 

been almost extirpated, the New England people did not Indian: 
have peace. The Indians of Maine kept up a war on the 
Eastern settlements. In this war Church was still the 
right hand of the colonies. He introduced the use of the 
light whale-boat, which afterward did admirable service 



f Philip. 



whale- 
fighting 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



Bacon^s wa 
the Virginii 
dians, 1676. 



The Westoe 



on Lake George and Lake Champlain in the wars with 
the French in Canada, and which was used in Long 
Island Sound for some daring expeditions during the 
Revolution. Church put leathern loops on the sides of 
his boats, so that, when necessary, his men could thrust 
bars through the loops and carry the boats where they 
pleased. He moved as stealthily as the Indians, and, to 
avoid an alarm, never allowed an Indian to be shot who 
could be reached with the hatchet. Though engaged in 
so fierce a business as savage warfare. Church had a 
good deal of forbearance and 
kindliness. 

About the time of Philip's 
war the Doegs and Susque- 
hannahs were ravaging the 
Virginia frontier, while the 
governor of that colony re- 
fused to allow any one to 
march against them. But Na- 
thaniel Bacon, a 3-oung man of 
great spirit, was chosen by the 
people to lead them, which he 
did in opposition to the gov- 
ernor's orders. This disobe- 
dience led to " Bacon's Re- 
bellion," as it is called, the 
story of which is told in Chap- 
ter XXVI. 

All the colonies suffered 
and from Indian wars. The infant settlement in South Caro- 
lina was almost ruined by a war with the Indians called 
Westoes, ten years after the arrival of the first white 



1 ^^^^(mo 





EARLY JXDIAN WARS. ge 

men, and in the very year that Charleston was settled ; 
that is, in 1680. In 171 1 the warlike Tuscaroras rav- 
aged the scattered settlements of North Carolina, put- 
ting people to death by horrible tortures. It was only 
by the help of the Virginians and South Carolinians, 
and the Yamassee Indians, that the settlers, after two 
years, finally defeated the Tuscaroras, capturing and 
sending many hundreds of them to be sold as slaves 
in the West India Islands ; a mode of disposing of In- 
dirtn prisoners very common at that time. The sale of 
the Indians got them out of the country, and paid a 
part of the cost of the war. But West Indian slavery in 
that day was particularly severe on the Indians, who 
could not bear hard labor, a change of climate, or the 
loss of their liberty. 

In 1715 the Yamassees, who two years before had The vamassee 
helped the white people to put down the Tuscaroras, carouna, 1715. 
joined with the Spaniards in Florida, and with all the 
other Indians from Florida to Cape Fear, in an attempt to 
destroy the colony of South Carolina. There were six 
or seven thousand Indian warriors in this league, while 
South Carolina could only muster fifteen hundred white 
men and two hundred trusty negroes. Governor Cra- 
ven knew that a single defeat would ruin the colony, 
so he marched with the utmost caution until he brought 
on a great battle, and overthrew the Indians. This war 
lasted about three years, and resulted in the ruin of the 
Yamassees. 



86 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 





CHAPTER XV. 

TRAITS OF WAR WITH THE INDIANS. 

The most important weapon of the Indian, when the 
white men came, was the bow and arrow. The arrow 
was headed with a sharpened flint or a bit of horn. 
Sometimes the spur of a wild-turkey or the claw of an 
eagle was used to point the arrow. Next to the bow 
and arrow the Indian warrior depended on a war-club, 
which had a handle at one end and a heavy knob at the 
other, or upon a fomahawk, made by fastening a wooden 
handle to a round stone, or a stone axe. But all their 
rude weapons were given up as soon as the Indians 
could get knives, hatchets, and guns from the white 
men. In some cases, it is said, they were so eager for 
gunpowder that they sowed what they got at first, sup- 
posing it to be the seed of a plant. The Pequots com- 
manded two white girls, whom the}- had captured, to 
make some gunpowder, supposing that all white people 
knew how to make it. 

At the first arrival of white men, thev protected 

themselves by wearing armor, anc^ the Indian arrows 

could not do them much hurt. But, 



Armor 
of the V 



ind arn 
hite mi 



-^ as soldiers could not get about very 
■^_- fast in heavy armor and with clumsy 

guns, they could not do much harm 
to the Indians. Some of the guns used were match- 
locks. In order to shoot, the soldier had to place in 




MATCHLOCK-GUN. 



TRAITS OF WAR WITH THE INDIANS. 



87 





front of him a " rest " — a kind of forked 
stick or staff — and lay his heavy gun across it 
In iiring, the powder on the lock of his gun 
was set off with a lighted fuse or match ; and 
the soldier had to carry a burning fuse in his 
hand. If he let his fuse go out, he could not 
use his gun until he got fire again, for friction- 
matches were unknown. But the Indians would 
not stand still while the white men got ready to /*' 
shoot. This awkward matchlock-gun was some- 
times used as late as 1675, the time of Philip's -^ \^ 
war. The snaphance, or flint-lock, was already 
coming into use when the colonies were settled. The 
flint-lock was set off by the striking of the flint against a 
piece of steel, when the trigger was 
pulled. (Guns with percussion-caps are 
much later invention.) Some of the 
white men at first were armed with 
,} pikes or spears ; but it was found to 
be a very dangerous business to poke 
an Indian out of the brush with a 
pike. During Philip's war the pike 
began to go out of use in America. 

When the Indians had procured The Indians get 

fire-arms. White 

fire-arms, the armor which the soldiers men change their 

, . , ,. , . , 1 11 . mode of fighting. 

wore, bemg of little use against bullets, 

was rather a burden than an advantage. 

Long after the first settlements were made, white men 

ceased by degrees to wear the head, and breast, and 

back pieces of metal, and they laid aside also the heavy 





:?«= 



MATCHLOCK-GUN. 



88 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 




6NOW-SH0ES. 



ent of 
rs by the 



buff-coats, which were made of leather and stuffed, to 
resist bullets. The colonists also learned to march in 
scattering parties, as the Indians did, in order to avoid 
surprise, and to lie in ambush, and to load their guns 
while lying down. For a long time the savages made 
attacks on the Northern settlements in the winter, when 
the snow was so deep that the soldiers could not move 
about ; but, after stupidly suffering this for many years, 
the Northern colonies at length put their soldiers on 
snow-shoes, too, and then all was changed. 

The Indian did not hesitate to resort to treachery to 
entrap his foes. He would profess friendship in order 
to disarm an enemy. He gloried in ingenious tricks, 
such as the wearing of snow-shoes with the hind part 
before, so as to make an enemy believe that he had gone 
in an opposite direction. He would sometimes imitate 
the cry of the wild-turkey, and so tempt a white hunter 
into the woods, that he might destroy him. An Indian 
scout would dress himself up with twigs, so as to look 
like a bush. Many of these things the white people 
learned to practice also. 

The Indians were very cruel ; it was part of their 
plan to strike terror by their severity. This is why 
they tortured their prisoners to death and disfigured the 
dead, and why they slew women and children as well as 
men. They not onl)- put some ol their prisoners to 
death in the most cruel way their ingenuity could de- 
vise, but, in some tribes, the)- even devoured them after- 
ward. Sometimes, however, a prisoner was adopted into 
an Indian family, and kindly treated. Many hundreds 
of white children were thus adopted, and forgot their 
own language. Some of them afterward engaged in 



TRAITS OF WAR WITH THE IXDIANS. gg 

war against their own people. One boy, named Thomas 
Rice, was carried off from Massachusetts in child- 
hood, and became a chief of the tribe which had capt- 
ured him. 

The settlers learned after a while many ways of de- Defense of thf 
fending themselves. They built block-houses in every 
exposed settlement, for refuge in case of attack. When 
Indians were discovered lurking about in the night, a 
messenger would be sent from the block-house to warn 
the sleeping settlers. This messenger would creep up 
to a window and tap on it, whispering, "Indians!" ,^i^^^ 
Then the family within would get up, and, without ji - - - 
speaking or making a light, gather the most necessary ' : 
things and hurry away along dark paths through the ■ ' SjJ j 
woods to the block-house. In some of the more exposed 
regions the dogs were even trained not to bark unless 
commanded to. 

A town in Maine was attacked and almost destroyed Anecdotes of 

defense. 

by Indians, when one man sent his family b}' boat out 
of the back door of his fortified house, remaining there 
alone. By frequently changing his hat and coat, and 
then appearing without a hat and then without a coat, 
and by giving orders in a loud voice, he made the In- 
dians believe that his house was too full of men for them 
to attack it. Some Swedish women, near whei'e Phila- 
delphia now stands, saw Indians coming, and took refuge 
in their fortified church, carrying with them a kettle of 
hot soap. They defended themselves until their hus- 
bands came by throwing the boiling soap, with a ladle, 
at every Indian who approached the church. A maid- 
servant in Massachusetts, left alone with little children, 
drove away an Indian, who tried to enter the house, by 



90 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



firing a musket at him and throwing a shovelful of live 
coals on his head. A young girl in Maine held a door 
shut until thirteen women and children had time to es- 
cape by a back door into a block-house. The Indians, 
when they got in, knocked the girl down, but did not 
kill her. 

Alarms lu some, if not all, of the colonies, the firing of three 

shots in succession was the sign of danger. Every man 
who heard it was required to pass the alarm to those 
farther away, by firing three times, and then to go in 
the direction in which the shots had been heard. In 
many places large dogs were kept and trained to hunt 
for Indians, as highway robbers were hunted down in 
that day in England. In all exposed places, a part or 
all of the men took their arms to church with them. 

Courage of the Thc pcoplc bccamc very brave, and were fierce and 
even cruel during these long-continued Indian wars. A 
wounded soldier would beg to have a loaded gun put 
into his hands that he might, before he died, kill one 
more Indian. 

Escape of cap- Captivcs ofteu cscapcd from the Indians by ingenious 

devices, and sometimes suffered dreadful hardships in 
getting back to the settlements. A voung girl in New 
England, after three weeks of captivit}', made a bridle 
out of bark, caught a horse running in the woods, 
and, by riding all night, reached the settlement. Two 
little lads named Bradley got away, but they were 
tracked by the Indian dogs, who came up with them 
while they were hidden in a hollow log. They fed the 
dogs part of their provisions to make them friendly. 
After traveling nine days the elder fell down with ex- 
haustion, but the younger, who was the more resolute, 



TRAITS OF WAR WITH THE INDIANS. gj 

dragged himself starving into a settlement in Maine, and 
sent help to his brother. 

Hannah Dustin, Mary Neff, and a boy were carried Hannah oustin'; 

escape. 

off from Haverhill, Massachusetts. At midnight, while 
encamped on an island, they got hatchets and killed ten 
Indians, and then escaped in a canoe down the river. 
This bold escape soon became famous in the colonies, 
and the Governor of Maryland, hearing of it, sent to 
the returned captives a present for their courage. 




CHAPTER XVI. 

LIFE IN THE COLONLA.L TIME. 
When people first came to this country they had to First houses ( 

, '111 1 11 T -IT-. ^*^® colonists. 

take up with such houses as they could get. In Vir- 
ginia and New England, as in New York and Philadel- 
phia, holes were dug in the ground for dwelling-places 
by some of the first settlers. In some places bark wig- 
wams were made, like those of the Indians. Sometimes 
a rude cabin was built of round logs, and without a floor. 
As time advanced, better houses were built. Some of 
these were of hewed logs, some of planks, split, or sawed 
out by hand. The richer people built good houses soon 
after they came. Most of these had in the middle a large 
room, called " the hall." 



92 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The chimneys were generally very large, with wide 
fireplaces. Sometimes there were seats inside the fire- 
place, and children, sitting on these seats in the evening, 
amused themselves by watching the stars through the 
top of the chimney. In the early houses most of the 
windows had paper instead of glass. This paper was 
oiled, so as to let light come through. 

Except in the houses of rich people the furniture 
was scant and rough. Benches, stools, and tables were 
home-made. Beds were often filled with mistletoe, the 
down from cat-tail flags, or the feathers of wild-pigeons. 
People who were not rich brought their food to the 
table in wooden trenchers, or trays, and ate off wooden 
plates. Some used square blocks of wood instead of 
plates. Neither rich nor poor, in England or America, 
had forks when the first colonies were settled. Meat 
was cut with a knife and eaten from the fingers. On 
the tables of well-to-do people pewter dishes were much 
used, and a row of shining pewter in an open cupboard, 
called a dresser, was a sign of good housekeeping. The 
richest people had silver-ware for use on great occasions. 
They also had stately furniture brought from England. 
But carpets were hardly ever seen. The floor of the 
best room was strewed with sand, which was marked off 
in ornamental figures. There was no wall-paper until 
long after 1700, but rich cloths and tapestry hung on the 
walls of the finest houses. 

Cooking was done in front of fireplaces in skillets 
and on griddles that stood upon legs, so that coals 
could be put under them, and in pots and kettles that 
hung over the fire on a swinging crane, so that they 
could be drawn out or pushed back. Sometimes there 



LIFE IN THE COLONIAL TIME. 



93 




was an oven, for baking, built in the side of the chim- 

ne}'. Meat was roasted on a spit in front of the tire. 

The spit was an 

iron rod thrust 

through the piece 

to be roasted, 

and turned by a 

crank. A whole 

pig or fowl was 

sometimes hung 

up before the fire 

and turned about 

while it roasted. Often pieces of meat were broiled 

by throwing them on the live coals. 

A mug of home-brewed beer, with bread and cheese, what they ate 
or a porridge of peas or beans, boiled with a little 
meat, constituted the breakfast of the early colonists. 
Neither tea nor coffee was known in England or this 
country until long after the first colonies were set- 
tled. When tea came in, it became a fashionable 
drink, and was served to company from pretty little 
china cups, set on lacquered tables. Mush, made of 
Indian-corn meal, was eaten for supper. 

In proportion to the population, more wine and spir- what they drank, 
its were consimied at that time than now. The very 
strong Madeira wine was drunk at genteel tables. 
Rum, which from its destructive effects was known 
everywhere by the nickname of " kill-devil," was much 
used then. At every social gathering rum was pro- 
vided. Hard cider was a common drink, as was mead 
or metheglin, which was made from honey. There 
was much shameful drunkenness. Peach-brandy was 



94 



aiSTOXY OF THE CXI TED STATES. 




Tbctr education. 



used in the Middle and Southern colonies, and was 
verv ruinous to health and morals- 
People of wealth made great display in their dress. 
Much lace and many silver buckles and buttons were 
worn. Workingmen of all sorts wore leather, deer- 
skin, or coarse canvas breeches. The stockings worn 
bv men were long, the breeches were short, and 
buckled, or otherwise fastened, at the knees. 

Our forefathers traveled about in canoes and little 
sailing-boats called shallops. Most of the canoes would 
hold about six men, but some were large enough to 
carrv fortv or more. For a long time there were no 
roads except Indian trails and bridle-paths, which could 
only be traveled on foot or 
on horseback. Goods were 
carried on pack-horses, or 
in boats and little vessels. 
When roads were made, 
wagons came into use. 

In a life so hard and busy 
as that of the earlv settlers. 




LIFE IN THE COI.OXIAL TIME. 



95 



there was little time for education. The schools were 
few and t,^encrally poor. Boys, when taught at all, 

learned to read, write, 
and " cast accounts " 
Gills ueic t lu^lit 




even less. Many of the children born when the colo- 
nies were new grew up unable to write their names. 
There were few books at first, and no newspapers until 
after 1700. There was little to occupy the mind exxept 
the Sunday sermon, which was often one or two hours 
in length. 




Their amuse- 
ments. 



96 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



In all the colonies people were very fond of dancing- 
parties. Weddings were times of great excitement and 
often of much drinking. In some of the colonies wed- 




ding festivities were continued for several days. Even 
funerals were occasions of feasting, and sometimes of ex- 
cessive drinking. In the Middle and Southern colonies 
the people were fond of horse-racing, cock-fighting, and 
many other rude sports brought from England. New 
England people made their militia-trainings the occasions 



LIFE IN THE COLONIAL TIME. 



97 



for feasting and amusement, fighting sham battles, 
and playing many rough, old-fashioned games. Coast 
ing on the snow, skating, and sleighing were first 
brought into America from Holland by the Dutch 
settlers in New York. 

In all the colonies there was a great deal of 
hunting and fishing. The woods were full of deer 
and wild-turkeys ; a whole deer was sometimes sold 
for a shilling. The rivers were alive with water-fowl 
and fish. From childhood the colonists learned 
to love the sports of the forest and stream, and ^^ 
much idleness was produced by this fondness for 
hunting and fishing. In the up-country of the 
Southern and Middle colonies there grew a race of Abund 
hunters who led half-savage lives in the woods, and 
often refused obedience to authority. Almost as wild 
as the savages, they formed a race of warlike men, who 
made successful rangers in the Indian wars, famous rifle- 
men in the Revolution, and daring pioneers when the 
country beyond the mountains came to be settled. 

Deer were caught in iron traps large enough to be Modes 
dangerous to men. Sometimes a hunter inclosed himself 
in a deer-skin so as to creep up near to a herd of these 
timid creatures. Horses were trained to walk gently by 
the side of the hunter, in order to conceal him until the 
deer was killed. A ring of men would surround a tract 
of country and then draw in toward the middle, killing 
deer, wolves, and wild-turke3's, whenever these creatures 
tried to escape. A circle of fire was sometimes lighted 
in the dry woods, and, as this burned to the center, the 
men followed on the outside of the ring and killed all 
the grame inclosed. Foxes were baited with sled-loads 




nee of 
Id fish. 



:>f taking 



98 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



of codfish-heads, and then shot by men in concealment as 
they came to eat. Wolves weie caught on large fish- 
hooks bound together and inclosed in tallow. As there 
was no end of game, animals were slain without fear of 
exterminating them. A whole flock of wild-turkeys was 
now and then taken in a single trap. Wild-pigeons, which 
flew in such numbers as to darken the sky, were slaugh- 
tered by the cart-load. 

Modes of fishing. Vast crowds of mcu gathered at the falls of the New 
England rivers when the salmon and shad were running 
up, and took the fish in nets, until their pack-horses were 
loaded with them. In the shallow waters of Virginia and 
Maryland men rode into the streams at night, with 
torches in their hands, sitting on horseback to spear 
fish. 

Fairs. Fairs after the English pattern were held in the 

Middle and Southern colonies. These were rendered 
attractive by the rough old English sports. A live goose 
was hung head downward, and horsemen riding below 
at full speed tried to pull off its head. A greased 
pig was given to the man who could catch it and hold 
it by the tail. Laced hats, boots, and other valuable arti- 
cles were hung on top of greased poles, to be taken by 
him who could climb for them. The efforts of men to 
hold greased pigs or climb greased poles gave great 
amusement to the crowd. Sometimes such cruel and 
brutal sports as the baiting of bulls with dogs were 
enjoyed by our ancestors, who were not so humane as 
they might have been. 



FARMING AND SHIPPING IN THE COLONIES. gg 

CHAPTER XVII. 

FARMING AND SHIPPING IN THE COLONIES. 

We have seen how the people who came first to Eariy experi- 
North America expected to find either a way to India, raising, vinc- 
or mines like those discovered farther southward. But ^'■°'^'"^' ^ '• 
when they found that they could not secure either the 
spices of India or the gold and silver of Peru, they 
turned their attention to the soil, to see what could be 
got by agriculture. But at first their plans for farming 
in America were as wild as their plans for getting to 
India. They spent much time in tr\-ing to produce silk 
and wine, two things which can be raised with profit 
only in old and well-settled countries. They also tried 
to raise madder, coffee, tea, olives, and the cacaonut, 
from whicli chocolate is made. 

John Rolfe, the husband of Pocahontas, in 1612 took Tobacco-grow 
a lesson from the Indian fields about him, and succeeded and Maryland 
in growing tobacco for the English market. Before this 
time, English smokers and snuff-takers got their tobacco 
from the Spaniards. The plant was well suited to the 
Virginia climate, and it was easy to ship tobacco from 
the farms, which were all on the banks of the rivers. 
Gold and silver coins were scarce in those days, and, in 
half a dozen years after John Rolfe planted the first to- 
bacco, it had become the only money of Virginia. Al- 
most everything bought and sold in Virginia and Mary- 
land, before the Revolution, was paid for in tobacco. 

The colony of South Carolina maintained itself in a Rice produced 

■' . South Carolin; 

rather poor way, during the first twenty-six years of 
L.ofC. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Eliza Lu 
troduces 
culture. 



Indian 
wheat, 
toes. 



its existence, chiefly by shipping lumber to the West 
Indies, and by making tar and pitch. But there was 
living in Charleston, in 1696, a gentleman named Thomas 
Smith, who had seen rice cultivated in Madagascar. 
One day when a sea-captain, an old friend of his, 
sailed into Charleston Harbor from Madagascar, Thomas 
Smith got from him a bag of seed-rice. This was care- 
fully sown in a wet place in Smith's garden in Charles- 
ton. It grew, and soon Carolina was changed into a 
land of great rice-plantations. The raising of rice spread 
into Georgia when that colony was settled. 

In 1 741 an energetic young lady. Miss Eliza Lucas, 
began to try experiments in growing the indigo-plant in 
South Carolina. A frost destroyed the first crop that 
she planted, and a worm cut down the next. The 
indigo-maker brought fi-om the West Indies tried to de- 
ceive her afterward, but by 1745 this persevering young 
lady had proved that indigo could be grown in South 
Carolina, and in two years more two hundred thousand 
pounds of it were exported. It was a leading crop for 
about fifty years, but, when the growing of cotton was 
made profitable by the invention of the cotton-gin, that 
crop took the place of indigo. 

corn the settlers got from the Indians. It was 
unknown in Europe. From it was made the 

most of the bread eat- 
en by Americans before 

the Revolution. It was 
also shipped to the West Indies 
from Virginia and North Carolina. 
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania formed the 
ofreat wheat region ol the colonial time. These colo- 




FARMIXG AXD SHIPPING IN THE COLONIES. 



It 



nies sent wheat, flour, and " hard-tack " bread in 
large quantities to the West Indies and the coun- 
tries on the Mediterranean Sea. Many thousands 
of great country wagons were employed in bring- 
ing grain to Philadelphia. Potatoes had been 
brought to Europe probably from South America ; 
but they were unknown to the Indians in what is 
now the United States. They were taken to Vir- 
ginia at the first settlement of Jamestown. Potatoes 
were not planted in New England fields until 1718. 
was thought that, if a man were to eat potatoes every 
day for seven years, he would die. 

Cattle and hogs were brought from England very cattie 

horse 

early, and were grown by thousands in the colonies. 
For the most part they ran in the woods, having marks 
on them to show to whom they belonged. Many cattle 
grew up without marks of ownership, and were hunt- 
ed as wild. There were " cow-pens " established for 
raising cattle in the wilderness, something like the 
" ranches " in the Western country to-day. The horses 
of that day were small and hardy. When not in use 
thev ran at large in the woods, and some of them quite 
escaped from their owners, so that after a while there 
came to be a race of wild hoi^ses. It was accounted 
rare sport to ride after a wild horse until he was tired 
out, and so to capture him. 

The English plow of that time was very heavy, and Fa™ 

Imple 

drawn by six horses or as many oxen. Efforts were 
made to introduce this to the colonies, but it was not 
suited to a new country. The plow most used in the 
colonies was a clumsy thing, with thin plates of iron 
nailed over the rude wooden plowshares. There were 




HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ing, whaling, 
sea-going in 
England. 




Trade of New 
York and Phila 
delphia. 



Captain Kidd, 
Steed Bonnet, 
and Worley. 



many stumps and few plows. All the tools were heavy 
and awkward. 

The Middle colonies raised wheat, the colonies on 
Chesapeake Bay tobacco, and the Southern colonies 
rice and indigo ; but the soil and climate of New Eng- 
land were not suited to any agricultural staple of 
great value. So the New-Englanders were driven 
to follow the sea. They built a great many ships, 
some of which they sold to English merchants ; 
others they used in fishing for codfish and mack- 
erel. These fisheries became very profitable to 
them. When the Long-Islanders discovered the art 
of taking whales along the coast, the New England 
people learned it, and became the most prosperous 
whalers in the world. The products of their fish- 
eries were sent to many countries, and New Eng- 
land ships were seen in almost every sea. Boston and 
Newport were the chief New England seaports. 

The people of New York also built many ships which 
were remarkable for their great size and the long voy- 
ages the}' made. But before the Revolution New York 
w-as not so large a town as Boston. Philadelphia, which 
was started later than the other leading cities, grew fast, 
and became the greatest of all the cities in the colonies. 
But Philadelphia contained only about thirty thousand 
people when the Revolution broke out. 

There were many pirates on the coast, who some- 
times grew so numerous and bold as to interrupt trade. 
Some of them were caught and hanged. 

Captain William Kidd, of New York, was sent out 
in i6g5 to put down the pirates that infested the Indian 
Ocean. The expense of his outfit was borne by certain 



FARMING AND SHIPPING IN TflE COLONIES. jq, 

gentlemen in America and England, who were to share 
his spoils. Not falling in with any pirates, he took to 
piratical ways himself. When he came back to America 
he was arrested by Lord Bellomont, Governor of New 
York and New England, and sent to England for trial 
and execution. In 17 17, Steed Bonnet and Richard 
Worley, two pirates with their crews, had taken posses- 
sion of the mouth of Cape Fear River in North Carolina, 
whence they committed great depredations on the com- 
merce of South Carolina. Colonel Rhett, of South 
Carolina, pursued Bonnet into Cape Fear River, and, 
after a fight, captured him and thirty of his men. They 
were tried and hanged at Charleston. Governor John- 
son, of South Carolina, took another vessel and attacked 
Richard Worley and his pirates, who fought until all 
were dead but Worley and one man, and these were 
taken, desperately wounded, and hanged. 

One of the most infamous of all the pirates of the BUckbeard. 
coast was Edward Teach, who, under the name of Black- 
beard, made himself the terror of all seamen on the coast 
from Philadelphia southward. He had his refuge 
also in the shallow waters of the North Carolina 
coast. A little more than a year after the over- 
throw of Bonnet, Lieutenant ALiynard sailed from 
Virginia and fought Blackbeard in Ocracoke Inlet. 
After a hand-to-hand struggle all the pirates were 
killed or wounded, and Maynard sailed back with 
Blackbeard's head hanging at his bowsprit. So many 
of the pirates were captured in the next half-dozen 
years that they gave little trouble afterward. picture of ■ 




I04 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



BOND-SERVANTS AND SLAVES IN THE COLONIES. 




ENGLISH F 

SEVENTEEN! 
CENTURY. 



When the English people came to this country they 
brought English wa3-s with them. In England at that 
time poor people had much less liberty than now. The 
lands of rich men were cultivated by tenants, who not 
onl}^ paid rent, but owed much respect and service to 
their " lord," as they called the owner of their lands. If 
these tenants did not pay their rent faithfully, they could 
be punished. Many of the people sent to Virginia at 
first were tenants, who were expected to work on other 
people's land in a sort of subjection. They were to pay 
half of all they produced to the land-owner, and they 
were bound to sta\' on the land for seven years. Ten- 
ants were also sent to Maryland, and the Dutch estab- 
lished the same system in New York. 

Besides tenants of this sort, there were sent to Vir- 
ginia people of a poorer class, M-ho were called " in- 
dentured servants." Those sent at first were poor boys 
and girls picked up in the streets, and bound to serve 
until they were of age. After a while there were sent 
to Virginia and to New England adult servants, bound 
to serve for seven or ten vears, but afterward thev were 
only required to serve four years to pay their passage. 
This way of getting laborers became very common, and 
many thousands of poor men, women, and children, were 
sent over in this temporar}' bondage. During the time 
of their service they could be bought and sold like 
slaves. They were often whipped and otherwise cruelly 



BOND-SERVANTS AND SLAVES. 



105 



treated when they chanced to fall into the hands of 
hard-hearted masters. 

There were people in England at that time called j spirits "and 
"spirits" and "crimps." By man}' false stories they 




persuaded poor men to go to the colonies as servants. 
Sometimes the crimps entrapped a man aboard ship, 
where he was detained and carried off to the colonies 
against his will. This was called "trapanning" a man. 
They often kidnapped or " spirited " away children 



I06 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

and sold them into service in the colonies. Sometimes 
people who wished to inherit an estate sent away the 
true heir and had him sold in America. One lad, who 
would have been Lord Annesley, was entrapped on ship- 
board by his uncle and sold into Pennsylvania. He was 
twelve years in bondage, after which he returned to 
England and proved his right to the lordship, though he 
died before he came into possession of it. 
Great number of Bond-scrvauts wcrc in somc places called "redemp- 

bond-servants, or . ,, . . ^ r c i i i r i i i 

•redemptioners." tioucrs. About iDjo hltccn hundred oi them were sold 
in Virginia every year. In Pennsylvania the men who 
took droves of redemptioners about the country and 
peddled them to the farmers were called " soul-drivers." 
Many thousands of German emigrants were brought to 
America by ship-captains from Holland and sold into 
a temporary bondage in Penns3-lvania. Many of the 
bond-servants, when their time was out, got land and 
grew rich. But the lot of the poor man was much 
harder in that time than in our da}'. 

convict-sirvants. The English laws in old times were very severe 
against small crimes. A man could be hanged for steal- 
ing bread to satisfy his hunger. Many people sentenced 
to death for small offenses were pardoned on condition of 
their going to the colonies. In America convicts were 
sold for seven 3-ears. The Americans complained bit- 
terly that such bad people were forced on them, and 
one wittv American writer offered to send a present of 
American rattlesnakes for the king's garden in return 
for his convicts. 

Introduction of In 1619, the year that the Great Charter reached Vir- 

ginia, there came a Dutch ship into James River, which 
sold nineteen negroes to the planters. They were the 



BONDSERVANTS AXD SLAVES. ^Ol 

first slaves in America. In that day it was tiiought right 
to make slaves of negroes because they were heathens ; 
but for a long time the number of slaves that came into 
the colonies was small. White bond-servants did the 
most of the work in Maryland and \*irginia until about 
the close of the se\-enteenth century, when the high price 
of tobacco caused a great many negroes to be brought. 
About the same time the introduction of rice into South 
Carolina created a great demand for slaves. 

There were slaves in all the colonies. But in the oistribu 
colonies far to the north there was no crop that would 
make their labor profitable. Negroes in New England 
were mostly kept for house-servants. In New York city 
and in Philadelphia there were a great many, but not 
many in the country regions about these cities, where 
wheat, which was the chief crop, did not require 
much hard labor. The larger number of negroes 
were taken to the colonies which raised tobacco, 
rice, and indigo. Negroes were especially fitted 
to endure a hot and malarial climate. After the 
Revolution, slavery was abolished in the colonies 
that had few negroes. But, where almost all the 
labor was done by slaves, it was much harder to 
get rid of slavery. This led to the difference 
between free and slave States, and at last to our 
civil war. 

The slaves at first did not speak English, and they chan 

slave 

practiced many wild African customs, especially at the tions 
burial of their dead. Some of them were fierce, and the 
white people were afraid of them. Great harshness was 
used to subdue them. The negroes often made bloody 
insurrections, which were put down with great severi- 




SIR JOHN HAWKINS, 

THE FIRST ENGLISH SUVE- 

TRADER, 



io8 Bssrojir of the csited states. 

tr. One of these was in New York citr in 1712. 
TwenlT-foar negroes were pat to death 00 this oc- 
caaoo. some of them in the cruel wars used in that 
time. In 1740 there was an uprising^ of slaves in 
Sooth Carolina, and a battle between them and the 
white people; in which the negroes were routed. In 
1741, on a bare sn^icioa of intended insurrection, thirtv- 
three slaves were executed in New York, thirteen ol 
them by fire. Like seTeritr was shown in other colo- 
nies, for people were more cruel in that daj than in 
later times. 

Many of the Indians were reduced to perpetnaJ 
slavery. These were usually the captives spared aftei 
Indian wars- They were often shipped from <me cokmj 
to another, so as to remove them from a chance oi 
cotnmnnTrating with wild Indians who qioke the same 
language or beloB^ed to aDied tribes with themselves^ 
Bat the Indians did not bear sla v et v so well as the 
Africans, and the most <^ them perished from hard 
labor, severe ponishment, and the loss of the fibertj 
which an TmrKan prizes above everythii^. 



CHAPTER XIX 
LAWS AND USAGES EN" THE COLOXTES. 
L««s against OuB. foFcfathers brooght many cnrioas old cnstoms 

tying, yi u&^ ii ' fr y ^ " 

and laws from England. The laws of that time were 
very meddlesome. Men were punished i<x lying- which 
nowadays we think is ooly to be cured, if it can be cored 

at alL by good example and good teaching. -\ fine was 



LAK^S AND USAGES IN THE COLONIES. 



109 



imposed on profane swearing by the laws of nearly all 
the colonies; in New England the tongue of the swear- 
er was sometimes pinched in the opening of a split 
stick. In all the colonies there were laws about keep- 
ing the Sabbath ; in many of them there were punish- 
ments for not going to church. In New England 
the Sunday laws were rigorously enforced, and the 
Sabbath was made to begin at sunset on Saturday 
evening, at which hour all work must cease. The 
people were at first called to church by beating a 
drum in the streets. For more than a hundred 
years after the settlement of Massachusetts, people 
were not allowed to sit on Boston Common on 
Sunday, or to walk in tlie streets except to church, 
or to take a breath of air on a hot Sunday by the 
sea-shore directly in front of their own doors. Two 
young people were arrested in Connecticut for sitting 
together on Sunday under a tree in an orchard. 

In the first meeting-houses in New England the men At ch 
and women usually sat apart, and the children were 
put in the gallery. Men with rods in their hands kept 
the boys and girls in order during the long service, 
and a tithing-man kept the grown people awake in the 
church below. This he did in some places with a rod, 
which had a ball on one end and a fox-tail on the 
other. With the ball he tapped any man found asleep, 
but if a woman forgot herself and took a little nap, 
she was awakened by the fox-tail brushing her face. 
In the Northern States the churches had no fire in 
them, but little foot-stoves were carried to meeting. 
In all the colonies people were seated in church ac- 
cording to their dignity or wealth. The pew of a Gov- 




HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



Laws against 
scolding and 
drunkenness. 



Other curious 
punishments. 



crnor or the Speaker of the Assembly often had some 
sort of ornament on it as a mark of distinction. 

If men were punished for swearing, women were 
also forbidden to be too free with their tongues. In 
\'irginia and some other colonies, women, for scold- 
ing or slander, were put upon a ducking-stool and 
dipped in the water — to cool them off, perhaps. In 
New England they were gagged and set by their 
nxvn Hnoi-'s " for all comers and 
goeis to gaze at." Drunk- 
aids ^^ere sometimes obhged to 
w eai a red letter D about 
their necks, and 
other offenses 
were punished 
y suspending 
I letter, or 
a picture, or 
a halter 
about 
the 
neck. 



Standing with 
the head and hands fast in the pillory, to be pelted 
with eggs by the crowd, and sitting with the feet fast 
in the stocks, were forms of punishment. In some places 
there were cages, in which criminals were confined in 
sight of the people. Punishments in the pillory and 
stocks, or in a cage, were inflicted on some occasion of 




LAWS AND USAGES IN THE COLONIES. 




public concourse — a lecture-day or a market-day — to 
make the shame greater. More severe than stocks or 
pillory were the custom- 
ary punishments of whip 
ping on the bare back, 
cropping or boring the 
ears, and branding the 
hand with a hot iron 
There were also some- 
times, for great crimes, 
cruel punishments of ^~ 
burning alive, or hang 
ing alive in chains, 
but these were very 
rare. 

Our forefathers were 
more superstitious than people 

THE STOCKS. 

are now, and they were very 

much afraid of witches. This foolish belief in witch- cha 
craft prevailed both in England and America. People 
sometimes nailed up horseshoes, or hung up laurel- 
boughs in their houses, to protect themselves from 
magic charms. When butter would not come for 
churning, red-hot horseshoes were dropped into the 
milk to " burn the witch out." When pigs were sick 
and thought to be bewitched, their ears and tails were 
cut off and burned. There were people tried in almost 
every colony for witchcraft. In England and in many 
other countries, executions for witchcraft were more 
common than in any of the colonies. In England and 
in America old women were sometimes put into the 
water, to find out whether they were witches or not. If 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



The Saler 
craft exci 



Religious perse- 
cution in the col- 
onies. 



a woman were a witch she would float ; if not, she would 
go to the bottom, according to the popular behef. 

Of the many excitements about witchcraft in the 
colonies, the one that went to the furthest extreme was 
that in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. So great was the 
agitation that the most serious people lost their self-pos- 
session, and some poor folks even believed themselves 

to be witches, and 
confessed it. In 
the fright and 
indignation that 
prevailed, twen- 
ty persons were 
executed, and the 
jails were crowd- 
ed with the 
accused. One 

fourth of the in- 
habitants of Sa- 
lem moved away, 
afraid either of 
the witches or 
of being charged 
with witchcraft. 
At length reason 
returned, the prisoners were released, and there was the 
deepest grief that the fanaticism had gone so far. There 
has never been an execution for witchcraft in this coun- 
try from that day to this, though there are still some 
ignorant people who believe in such things. 

In most of the colonies there was, at some time, per- 
secution for religious opinions. In Virginia, onl^- the 




PUNISHMENT OF A DRUNKARD. 



LAWS AND USAGES IN THE COLONIES. jj. 

Church of England form of worship was allowed at 
first, and Catholics, Puritans, Quakers, Presbyterians, 
and Baptists were persecuted. In Massachusetts, for 
a long time, only the Puritan or Congregational wor- 
ship, as set up by law, was allowed. Those who 
advocated other doctrines were punished, and man}' 
Quakers were whipped, and some of them even put 
to death, for coming back after they had been ban- 
ished. Lord Baltimore wished to give toleration in 
Maryland to all who believed in Christ, but the law- 
makers of Maryland afterward made laws to annoy 
those who were of Lord Baltimore's own religion — the 
Roman Catholic. Roger Williams, who was banished 
from Massachusetts for his opinions, founded what is 
now called Rhode Island, on the plan of entire lib- 
erty in religious matters. He went further than Lord 
Baltimore, and gave to Hebrews and to unbelievers 
the same liberty with Christians. In Pennsylvania, 
where the Friends or Quakers were in the majority, 
there was toleration ; and persecution ceased in all 
the colonies before the Revolution. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE SI ANIARDS IN FLORIDA AND THE FRENCH IN CANADA. 

Hitherto we have spoken only of English colonies French and span 



in North America, but a great part of the history of the 
English colonies consisted in conflicts with the neighbor- 
ing- colonies of other nationalities. We must now go 



eighbor 



114 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



De Soto's ex 
dition to the 
Mississippi. 



back for a moment and glance at the rise of these estab- 
lishments of France and Spain in North America. 

In 1 5 13, twenty-one years after Columbus made his 
great discovery, Ponce de Leon, an old Spanish ex- 
plorer, set sail from the island of Porto Rico to dis- 
cover a land reported to lie to the northward of Cuba, 
and which had somehow come to be called Bimini. It 
was said to contain a fountain, by bathing in which an 
old man would be made young again. On Easter Sun- 
day Ponce discovered the mainland, which he called 
Florida, from Pascua Florida, the Spanish name for 
Easter Sundav. In 1521 Ponce tried to settle Florida, 
but his party was attacked and he was mortally wounded 
by the Indians, without ever finding the fountain of 
youth. Florida was then believed to be an island. After 
the death of Ponce de Leon, other Spanish adventurers 
explored the coast from Labrador southward, and even 
tried to find gold-mines and plant colonies in the inte- 
rior of the country. 

The most famous of these expeditions was that of 
Hernando de Soto, a Spanish explorer, who reached 
Florida in 1539. He marched through Georgia, Ala- 
bama, and Mississippi. He was determined to find 
some land yielding gold, like Mexico and Peru. But 
he treated the Indians cruelly, killing some of them 
wantonly, and forcing others to serve him as slaves. 
The savages, in turn, attacked him again and again, 
until his party was sadly reduced. De Soto tried to 
descend the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, 
but at the mouth of the Red River he died of a fever. 
His body was buried in the Mississippi, to keep the 
Indians from disfiguring it in revenge. A few of his 



THE SPANIARDS IN FLORIDA. 



115 



followers reached the Gulf and got to the Spanish set- 
tlements in Mexico. 

Bv virtue of these explorations the Spaniards laid st. Augustin 

■' ^ ^ founded. 

claim to the whole continent of North America. In 
1565 a Spanish party under Menendez arrived in Florida. 
They put to the sword the members of a French Hu- 
guenot colony already planted there, and then laid the 
foundation of St. Augustine, forty-two years before the 
first permanent English colony landed at Jamestown. 
St. Augustine is thus the oldest city in the United 
States. But the Spaniards were too busy in Mexico 
and in Central and South America to push their settle- 
ments farther to the north, though they were very jeal- 
ous of the English colonies, and especially of South Caro- 
lina and Georgia. 

In 1524 an Italian named Verrazano explored North verrazanoa 

voyage. 

America from about the region of North Carolina to 
the coast of Newfoundland. As Verrazano had been 
sent out by Francis I, King of France, to discover a 
way to China, the French claimed a great part of North 
America by virtue of his discoveries. 

Ten years after Verrazano's voyage, a French cap- earner's voj 
tain named Jacques Cartier was sent by Francis I to find 
a way to China and the East Indies, which was at that 
time the chief motive for all explorations. Cartier ex- 
amined the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. The 
latter was found so barren that it was thought to be the 
land allotted to Cain. On this voyage Cartier got into 
the bay now called the Bay of St. Lawrence ; but he 
returned to France without discovering the magnificent 
river of that name. The next year he returned and 
entered the river St. Lawrence, hoping that he might 



ii6 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 




xplora- 
;he inte- 



find a way by fresh water to get through to the other 
side of the land, and so to China and India. He reached 
Quebec, the Indian inhabitants of which dressed some 
of their men up like devils to frighten Cartier from going 
farther up the river. But he pushed on in small boats 
to Montreal, where there was a fortified Indian town, 
and where he was well received. An effort was made 
to plant a French colony in Canada in 1541, but the 
attempt was defeated by many misfortunes. 

Sixty j-ears passed before the French again made 
serious efforts to colonize in the part of America which 
they called New France. Then, in 1603, new exertions 
were made under the leadership of one of the most 
remarkable men of his age, Samuel de Champlain, 
who became the founder of Canada. After some in- 
effectual attempts to plant on the coast, and man)- 
careful explorations, Champlain founded Quebec 
in 1608, the year after Jamestown was planted in 
*< Virginia. As the Jamestown colony lived by pro- 
ducing tobacco, Quebec existed from the first on the 
profits of a successful Indian trade. It was alwa^-s 
the capital of the vast establishments of the French in 
America. 

The French, like the English, were trying to find the 
Pacific Ocean, and they were much more daring in their 
explorations than the English colonists, whose chief busi- 
ness was farming. A French explorer named Joliet 
reached the Mississippi in 1673, and another French- 
man, La Salle, explored the great country west of the 




THE FREXCH IN CANADA. 




-^ 



Tch posts 
ng the 



Alleghany Mountains, and discovered the Ohio. 
After many disasters and failures, La Salle succeed- 
ed in reaching the mouth of the Mississippi. /*,«. Km^ 
Father Hennepin, a priest, explored the upper ^t -^ ^^^^^ 
Mississippi. The French then laid claim to all k,-^ '''' xT, 

the country west of the Alleghanies. Over 
this region they established posts and mission- ^f 
houses, while the English contented themselves »■ 
with multiph'ing their farming settlements east 
of the mountains. To make sure of their title, the 
French, in later times, buried metal plates at certain 
points in the Mississippi Valley, on which were engraved 
the claim of their king to the country. 

When La Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi, fou 
he took possession of the country in the name of Louis Fre 
XIV, and called it Louisiana, in honor of that king, i^' 
The settlement of Louisiana was begun in 1699. The 
French held the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, the 
two great water-ways to the heart of North America, 
and they controlled most of the Indian tribes b}' means 
of missionaries and traders. They endeavored to con- 
nect Canada and Louisiana by a chain of fortified posts, 
and so to hold for France an empire, in the heart of 
America, larger than France itself. 

But the weakness of the French in America lay 
in the fewness of their people. Canada, the oldest 
of their colonies, was in a latitude too cold to be a 
prosperous farming country in that day. Besides, its 
growth was checked by the system of lordships with 
tenants, which some of the English colonies had also 
tried. But inferior as the French were in numbers, 
they were strong in their military character, for they 




ii8 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Weaknes; 
strength 




COUREUR DES BOIS, 

WANDERING FUR-TRADER 

OF CANADA. 




were almost all soldiers. The English were divided into 
colonies, and could never be made to act together ; but 
the French, from Canada to the Mississippi, were abso- 
lutely subjected to their governors. 

The French were also rendered terrible to the 
English colonies by their skill in controlling the 
Indians. The great business of the French in Can- 
ada was the fur-trade, and this was pushed with 
an energy that quite left the English traders be- 
hind. The French drew furs from the shores of 
Lake Superior and from beyond the Mississippi. 
The French traders gained great influence over the 
Indians. The English treated the Indians as in- 
feriors ; the French lived among them on terms 
of equality, and, in many cases, intermarried with 
them. The French also gained control of the 
Indian tribes by means of missionary priests, who risked 
their lives and spent their da3's in the dirty cabins of 
the savages to teach them religion. The powerful Iro- 
quois confederacy, known as the " Five Nations," and 
afterward as the " Six Nations," sided with the English, 
and hated and killed the French. They lived in what 
is now the State of New York. But the most of the 
tribes were managed by the French, who sent mission- 
aries to convert them, ambassadors to flatter them, gun- 
smiths to mend their arms, and militarv men to teach 
them to fortify, and to direct their attacks against the 
settlements of the English. 




THE FREXCH IX CAXADA. 



119 



The wars between the French colony in Canada and subjects of dis- 
pute between the 

the English colonies in what is now the United States French and Eng- 
were caused partly by wars between France and Eng- 
land in Europe. But there were 
also causes enough for enmity in the 
state of affairs on this side of the 
ocean. First, there was always a 
quarrel about territory. The French 
claimed that part of what is now 
the State of Maine which lies east 
of the Kennebec River, while the 
English claimed to the St. Croix. 
The French also claimed all the 
country back of the .\lleghanies. 
With a population not more than 

one twentieth of that of one of the English colonies, 
they spread their claim over all the country watered by 
the lakes and the tributaries of the Mississippi, includ- 









"^/^.-^ 




I20 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ing more than half of the present United States. Sec- 
ond, both France and England wished to control the 
fisheries of the eastern coast. Third, both the French 
and the English endeavored to get the entire control of 
the fur-trade. Fourth, the French were Catholics and 
the English mostly Protestants. In that age men were 
very bigoted about religion, and hated and feared those 
who differed from them. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

COLONIAL WARS WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. 

"King Williams There wcrc four wars with the French during the 
egun. colonial time. The first was called " King William's 
War," from William III, King of England. It lasted 
from 1689 to 1697. In this war the first severe blow 
fell on the settlements of Maine, where the Indians in 
the French interest attacked the settlers in June, 1689, 
paying old grudges by torturing their victims. But the 
French did not escape. The Iroquois Indians were in 
alliance with the English, and had, besides, their own 
reasons for taking revenge on the French. In this same 
summer of 1689 they attacked the settlements about 
Montreal at daybreak, and killed, in their horrible way, 
two hundred people, and carried as many more into 
captivity. 

Frontenac. Thcsc ravages of the Iroquois, carried almost into the 

town of Montreal, created a panic in the whole French 
colony, which had been almost ruined by bad govern- 



COLONIAL WARS WITH FRAXCE AND SPAIN. jjj 

ment since their former governor Count Frontenac had 
been removed. The King of France found it necessary 
to send Frontenac, who was now in his seventieth year, 
to encourage the Canadians and carry on the war with 
the Iroquois. The old governor resolved to show the 
power of Canada, not by striking the Iroquois, but by 
striking past them, so as to make the English settlements 
feel the terror suffered by the French. He thought by 
such acts to win the respect and perhaps the friendship 
of the Iroquois. 

Frontenac sent out three war- parties composed of Destruction of 

T^ 11. y r^ Schenectady. 

French soldiers and Canadian Indians. One of these 
parties marched against Schenectady, and the story of 
this expedition will serve to give us a notion of the 
general character of many attacks that occurred about 
this time. The march was made in winter through 
deep snows, the French and Indians enduring incred- 
ible hardships. 

" They marched for two-and-twenty daies 

All through the deepest snow. 
And on a dismal winter night 

They strucke the cruel blow." 
So runs one of those old ballads by which our fore- 
fathers celebrated such bloody occurrences. The town 
of Schenectady was surrounded with palisades, through 
which there were two gates. But so secure were the 
inhabitants, defended, as they thought, by hundreds of 
miles of snow-drifts, that the gates were open and the 
whole town fast asleep. When warned to keep watch, 
the people had made light of the matter by constructing 
snow images of sentinels at each gate. The French and 
Indians scattered themselves all throuofh the town in 



122 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



small parties, so as to waylay the doors of every house 
to prevent escape. Then the war-whoop was raised, 
and the work of slaughter began. Men and women 
alike were shot and tomahawked ; on children no am- 
munition was wasted — they were killed by being dashed 
against the door-posts of the houses or thrown into the 
fire. The bodies of the dead were outraged, and the 
village was set in flames. The Indians in the town, to 
the number of thirty, belonging to the Mohawk tribe 
of Iroquois, were spared and sent home, in order to 
detach their tribe from the English interest. Sixty of 
the inhabitants were killed in this attack. Some escaped 
out of their beds and ran toward Albany, sixteen miles 
away. Part of these perished of cold, and some got to 
Albany, with the loss of limbs from frost. A number 
were carried into a midwinter captivity. 

Other assaults. The French party now had equal hardships to get 

back. Seizing forty of the best horses they could get, 
they hastened away ; but they suffered from hunger, and 
they were overtaken when almost at home by a party of 
Mohawks, and fifteen or more were killed. Another of 
Frontenac's parties of French and Indians, after strug- 
gling for three months through the snow, attacked Sal- 
mon Falls, in New Hampshire, at daybreak. The peo- 
ple made a brave resistance ; but, after thirt}' of them 
had been killed, the rest surrendered and were taken to 
Canada. Another party attacked a post on Casco Bay, 
in Maine, where the city of Portland now stands, capt- 
ured and destro3'ed it. 

Colonies combine Thesc succcsscs of the French, so far from disheart- 

for defense. 

ening the English, only roused them to revenge. They 
now felt the evil of their division into separate colo- 



COLONIAL IVARS WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. 



nies, and in 1690 a congress of commissioners from 
several colonies met in New York to consider the best 
means of carrying on the war with some sort of united 
action. This congress, which foreshadowed the ulti- 
mate union of the English colonies, planned an invasion 
of Canada. 

In accordance with this plan, Sir William Phips took Attempt to take 

. . . Quebec. 

Port Ro3'al, in Nova Scotia. Two expeditions were sent 
against Quebec : the one from New York and Connecti- 
cut was ordered to go by Lake Champlain ; the other, 
from Boston, under Sir William Phips, was sent in a fleet 
of thirty-four ships. The expedition by way of Lake 
Champlain fell a victim to dissensions among its officers 
and to discontent of the Indian allies, and retired with- 
out even embarking on the lake. Phips reached Que- 
bec, but found it impregnable to his force. 

The management of a horde of undisciplined Indians Peter schuyier. 
is always a matter of delicacy and difficulty, demanding 
a peculiar tact. Among the English there was one man 
at this time who was capable of controlling 
the Iroquois. This was Peter Schuyler, the 
first mayor of Albanj'. At this 
time Albany was peopled almost 
wholly by those who spoke the 
Dutch language, settlers who had 
come from Hoi- . . . 
land while New (n 
York was a Dutch 
province, or their 
descendants. Colo- 
nel Peter Schuy- 
ler was of this 




124 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Colonel Schuy- 
ler's expedition 
against the 
French. 





Dutch race. He had been born in Albany while it was 
a Dutch post and a center of the Indian trade, and he 
had grown up with a knowledge of the manners and 
speech of the neighboring Iroquois and a familiar ac- 
quaintance with the savages themselves. The Indians 
had great confidence in " Quider," as they pronounced 
his name. 

In 1691 Schuyler led a party of white men and Mo- 
hawks against Canada. He attacked and got the better 
of a body of French and Indians of double the number 
of his own ; and when after this success he found himself 
intercepted by a strong body of the enemy, who lay 
between his soldiers and their canoes, he called to his 
men that there was nothing for it but to fight or die 
there. After a struggle of an hour he broke the French 
line, got into their rear, and, turning on them again, at 
length defeated them, regained his canoes, and returned 
home. 

Schuyler did what he could to prevent Indian cruel- 
ties. He was shocked to find that his hungry Mohawks 
were eating the French they had killed. The whole con- 
test was made up of barbarities and miseries without 
result, until peace between France and England, in 
1697, brought a little welcome repose to the colo- 
nists of both nations after eight years of war and 
massacre. 

In 1702 began what was known as "Queen 
Anne's War." In this contest England fought 
against Spain as well as France. South Caro- 
linaj(Was involved in a war with the Spaniards 
and Indians of Florida, while the Northern colo- 
nies were struggling against Canada. The Gov- 



COLONIAL WARS WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. 



125 



ernor of South Carolina made successful inroads upon -Queen Anne'! 
the Florida Indians, but he could not capture St. Au- 
gustine. Port Ro3'al, in Nova Scotia, was again taken 
from the French in 17 10, but the attempts made to take 
Quebec were once more a failure. 

In 1709 Peter Schuyler took five Iroquois chiefs to "The Five In- 
dian Kings " in 

England as ambassadors in order to keep the Iroquois London, india 

faithful to the English. These chiefs were made much 

of in London, where 

they weie called 

" The Five Indian 

Kinjrs." The \\ ai 




rible onslaughts of 
the Canada Indians on some of the towns of the North- 
ern frontier. Deerfield, in western Massachusetts, was 
destroyed in 1704, and more than a hundred of its in- 



126 HISTORY OF THE U.XITED STATES. 




:^^ habitants 

carried into 
captivity. The war lasted 
', JL_^ jfjry^.^' ' about eleven years. A treaty 

' — was made in 17 13, and there was a 

long peace between France and Eng- 
land. But the intrigues of both powers with the sav- 
ages continued, and even in times of peace with France 
New England had many bloody engagements with the 
Indians of Maine, who were under the influence of the 
French. 



COLONIAL WARS WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. 



127 




OGLETHORPE'S 



In 1740, during a war with Spain, General Ogle- ogiethorpe anc 

1 1/1 r /-^ • • 1 *''^ Spaniards 

thorpe, the lounder 01 (jeorgia, tried to conquer Flor- Florida, 
ida, but the fortifications of St. Augustine were too 
strong for him. Two years later the Span- 
iards invaded Georgia, but Oglethorpe ma- 
noeuvred his little force with so much skill 
as to lead the Spanish into ambuscades and 
defeat them at every point. 

In 1744 the war between England and 
France, known as " King George's War," 
began. At that time many French priva- 
teers were sent out to plunder New Eng- 
land ships. These privateers came out of 
Louisbourg, a French stronghold on Cape 
Breton Island. Governor Shirley, of Mas- 
sachusetts, sent against this place four thousand un- 
trained New England militia. Thev were commanded "King George's 

° -^ War" and the 

by a merchant, and their officers did not know even the first capture of 

r ... Ti 1 1 • Louisbourg. 

meanmg 01 military terms. But they made up in cour- 
age and enthusiasm for their inexperience. The Ameri- 
cans had few cannon, but their favorite amusement had 
always been target-shooting, and the deadly skill with 
which they used their muskets made it almost im- 
possible for the French to work their guns. The ex- 
citement over this contest put a stop to almost all 
kinds of business in the Eastern colonics, and when at 
length the powerful fortress surrendered to a little 
army of farmers and mechanics, there was no end of 
joy in New England. This was the chief victory of 
the war, and it gave the American troops confidence in 
themselves. At the peace, concluded in 1748, England 
returned Louisbourg to the French in exchange for 



128 HISTORY OF THE CXITED STATES. 

advantages elsewhere. Tliis was a bitter disappoint- 
ment to the Xew-Englanders, who called the da\- of its 
surrender a " black day, to be forever blotted out of New 
England calendars." 



CHAPTER XXII. 

braddock's defeat, and the expulsion of the 
acadiaxs. 

Washington sent The French made use of the years that intervened 
the French forts, bctwccn the pcacc of 1 748 and the outbreak of hos- 
tilities in 1754 to draw a line of posts along the Ohio 
and near to the Alleghany Mountains, intending to con- 
fine the English to the country cast of the AUeghanies, 
and to secure to themselves the whole of the great inte- 
rior valley. This was especiall}- exasperating to Vir- 
ginia, which claimed the western countr}-. George 
Washington, then a young man of twenty-one, who had 
already spent much time on the frontier as a survevor, 
was sent into the wilderness by the Governor of Virginia 
as an ambassador to urge the French to depart peaceably. 
This errand the athletic and cool-headed young man ac- 
complished, in spite of great hardships and dangers. 
Washington's Xhc Frcuch officers were vcrv much impressed b}' 

embassy. 

Washington, and showed him many courtesies, though 
thev tried to persuade his Indians to leave him. On his 
return a French Indian tried to kill him by firing at him, 
and then pretending that his gun had gone off accident- 
allv. The Indian was caught, and Washington's com- 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 



129 




panion, Gist, 
would have killed 
/ him, but \Yashington 
let him go. But he and 
Gist were obliged to travel 
on foot all night and all the 
next day to avoid pursuit. 
They found the Alleghany 
River filled with floating ice. 
The two travelers built a raft and endeavored by this 
means to ferry themselves across, but the ice caught 
the pole with which Washington was pushing and threw 
him into the river. lie caught hold of the raft and 
drew himself out. He and Gist were obliged to pass 
the night on an island, and Gist was badly frost-bitten. 
Washington got back to Williamsburg in January, and 
the story of his adventures produced a great excite- 
ment in the little capital, and became the chief topic of 
talk in the plantation-houses of Virginia. 

The governor was like the man in the fable who Washington tnes 

to expel the 

tried soft words at first, but threw stones when nothing French. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



vJ*^^ 



else would drive the thievish boys from his apple-tree. 
The year after Washington's embassy — that is, in 1754 — 
Washington was sent as a major at the head of some 
troops to dislodge the French, who had built a post 
at the head of the Ohio, where Pittsburg now stands. 
This they called Fort Duquesne. Washington found 
the French too strong for his force, but, by surprising 
and defeating a skulking party of them, he brought 
on a 2,reat \var bt't\\een France and England, which 

the French wished to 
postpone. Washing- 
ton was himself after- 
ward attacked by a 
superior force, and 
compelled to capit- 
ulate and retire 
from the disputed 
ground. 

In 1755 Gen- 
eral Braddock, 
an Eng- 
lish 





officer, 
marched from 
Virginia in 
command of 

addocks expe- an army of English regulars and colonial militia, to drive 
the French from Fort Duquesne. Braddock was brave 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 



131 




DOTTED LINE SHOWS BRADDOCK'S 
MARCH FROM FORT CUMBERLAND, 
ON THE POTOMAC, TOWARD FORT 
DUQUESNE. 



Braddock 
attacked. 



and honest, but harsh and 
brutal in manners. He 
could not understand the 
nature of a war in the 
woods. Like other Eng- 
lish officers of the time, 
he despised the American 
militia and their half-Indian way of fight- 
ing. He thought it cowardice to skulk 
behind a tree or to crouch by a log to 
fire. He insisted on training the colonial 
militia to fight in European fashion, though 
his whole march was through a forest 
where it was impossible to form a battalion. 

When only eight miles from Fort Duquesne, the 
French and Indians attacked Braddock's army. The 
scarlet coats and solid ranks of the soldiers, who ad- 
vanced waving their hats and crying " God save the 
king!" made a good target for Indian marksmen, and 
the English were mowed down by the deadly fire that 
came from trees and gullies where no enemy was to be 
seen. The British soldiers, though brave enough, were 
unused to such warfare, and unable to do anything to 
repel the unseen foe. After standing huddled together 
for three hours, they broke and iled. The Virginians, 
whom Braddock had despised, had stood their ground 
for a while, fighting behind trees like the Indians ; but 
Braddock, esteeming this cowardly, ordered them to 
" come out in the open field like Englishmen," and even 
struck some of them with the back of his sword. 

General Braddock exposed himself fearlessly. He 
had four horses killed under him, and was on the lifth 



Braddock defeat- 
ed and killed. 



1^2 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

when he was mortally wounded. George Washington, 
who was the only officer on Braddock's staff not killed 
or wounded, behaved with admirable courage. He had 
two horses shot under him, and four bullets pierced his 
clothes. Nearly all the officers of Braddock's army were 
killed or wounded, and the soldiers who escaped the 
slaughter fled back to Fort Cumberland in a wild panic. 
Expulsion of the In the same summer with Braddock's defeat came 

Acadians. 

the removal of the Acadians. Acadia was the name 
of the region now included in the provinces of Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick. It had been settled by 
the French about one hundred years when the English 
conquered it in 1710, during Queen Anne's War. The 
people were a very ignorant peasantry, who contin- 
ued to speak French and to take sides secretly with 
their own nation in every struggle between the two 
countries, though they had lived forty-five years under 
English rule. In this war the hard resolution was taken 
to scatter the Acadians through the various English 
colonies. They were seized and put on board vessels 
and sent away ; their houses and barns were burned, 
and their lands confiscated. Their sufferings have ex- 
cited pity even to our own times, and have been made 
the subject of Longfellow's poem of " Evangeline," 
which is a story of the time : 
" When on the falling tide the vessels departed, 
Bearing a nation with all its household gods into exile. 
Exile without an end, and without an example in story, 
Scattered were they like flakes of snow, when the wind 

from the northeast 
Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the banks 
of Newfoundland." 



EXPUL.SIOX OF THE ACAD/ANS. 



133 



Some of the Acadians got to Louisiana, some to Can- 
ada, and some, after great hardships, made their way 
back to Acadia ; others were scattered in various 
places. 

Almost the whole of this year's operations of the Battle of Lake 

George. Failure 

British and colonial troops ended in failure. Sir Will- of Johnsons and 
iam Johnson was sent to capture Crown Point, a French tions. 
fort on Lake Cham plain. His raw forces succeeded in 
beating off the French in the battle of Lake George 
but Johnson, who was no soldier, did not even at 
tempt to go farther, and Crown Point was not 
^j , attacked. General Shirley set out to capture the 

French fort at Niagara, but he was outgeneraled 
Jjf^^ by the French, and did not reach it. 

The statesmen who governed England at this 
time were very incompetent. The colonies were 
divided by factions and jealousies, many of the 
colonial governors were incompetent, and the war 

in America was carried on with 
half-heartedness and stupidity. 

Lord Loudon was sent, in 1756, capture of Fort 

William Henry, 

to command the troops in Amer- and massacre of 

-J Y 1 • J • i T • 1 part of the gar- 

ica. He laid siege to Louisbourg ^ison. 
in 1757, but failed to take it. For 
this movement he drew away many 
of the troops that had protected 
the New York frontier. Aware of 
this, the French, under Montcalm, 
besieged and captured Fort Will- 
iam Henry, at the south end of 
Lake George. By the terms of ca- i-ord i.oudon. 
pitulation the colonial troops were 




SrR WILUAM JOHNSON. 





134 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



to be allowed to return home, but after they had sur- 
rendered the fort the Indian allies of the French fell 
on them and killed a great many. Others they seized 
and carried off, while Montcalm besought them and 
threatened them in vain. The great disgrace of the 
American wars in the last century was the use of sav- 
age allies by civilized nations. 




Pitt condu 
war again! 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

FALL OF CANADA. 

In the midst of this war with France, William 
Pitt, afterward Earl of Chatham, became Prime 
Minister of England. He was one of the great- 
est orators and perhaps the greatest English 
statesman of his time. His advancement had 
been retarded by the jealousy which King 
f " George II felt of his opposition to all encroach- 

ments on libert}'. But so great was his popularit}' that 
the king felt obliged in 1757 to intrust the government to 
him. Up to that moment the war had brought England 
only disgrace and defeat. But Pitt infused his own fierv 
spirit into every department of the government. From 
the moment his strong hand was felt, the tide turned in 
England's favor everj'where. Pitt made great changes 
in the conduct of the war in America. He was resolved, 
indeed, to take Canada, and to drive the French out of 
America, as the only means of winning a lasting peace in 
that quarter. He chose his commanders with care, and 



FALL OF CANADA. 



135 




from the time he came to power the English colonies 
began to feel some hope of getting rid of the enemy that 
had so long sent the Indians, like wolves, to destroy the 
defenseless settlements. 

In 1758 the English, under Amherst, again laid siege 
to Louisbourg, that great fortress which New-Englanders 
had once captured. After a siege by sea and land, last- capture of lo 
ing nearly two months, and much hard fighting, the town Amherst, 1758. 
surrendered. 

In September of this same year the French fort, 
called Frontenac, which stood where the town of Kings- 
ton in Canada now stands, and controlled Lake Ontario, 
was taken by an English expedition. 

General Forbes, though so sick with a painful and 
mortal illness that he had to be carried on a litter, cut a 
road through the thick forests on the Pennsylvania 
mountains, marched to the Ohio, and forced the French '^""'^ founded 
to abandon Fort Duquesne. The English established a 
fort here and called 



the place Pittsburg, 
in honor of the great 
prime minister who 
had turned the cur- 
rent of the war from 
defeat to victory, 
and who had become 
the idol of the peo- 
ple in the American 
colonies. 

The English army 
in America suffered 
one considerable de- 



Capture of Fort 
Frontenac. 



General Forbes 
obliges the 
French to aban- 
don Fort Du- 
quesne. Pitts. 




136 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Defeat of the 
English at Ti( 
deroga. 



ne of the 
ch power 




Wolfe attacks 
Quebec. 




feat at Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain. Gen- 
eral Abercromby had sailed down Lake George and 
marched through the woods to attack Montcalm, at 
Ticonderoga. The English and colonial troops tried to 
carry the French works by assault, but after several re- 
pulses they retreated in a panic to their boats, and sailed 
back to tiie ft)rt at the south end of Lake George. 

But the English successes in 1758 pushed the French 

in America far toward ruin. Louisbourg, the great 

French stronghold, from which privateers were sent out, 

was gone, and by the fall of Fort Duquesne and Fort 

Frontenac the routes from Canada to Louisiana were 

cut off. The fur-trade of Canada was destroyed, and 

the Indians of the interior were no longer willing to 

come to the support of the French, seeing the English 

in possession of the main roads into their country. 

During the siege of Louisbourg, Wolfe, a young 

brigadier-general, had attracted much attention by the 

energy and daring of his operations. He was sent by 

Pitt to take Quebec, if such a thing were possible. 

Quebec is on a high, steep bluff, overlooking the St. 

Lawrence where that river is narrow, and the natural 

strength of the fortress is ver}- great. All through July 

and August of 1759, Wolfe's army and the English fleet 

tried in vain to find a weak spot in the defenses of the 

Canadian stronghold, but the fortress frowned on them 

from its inaccessible heights. In several attacks made 

at various points, the English were repulsed. As the 

season of storms was coming on, and the fleet must 

soon leave, even Wolfe began to despond. But, in 

spite of sickness and pain, this heroic man roused his 

army to make one more attempt. Meantime Mont- 



FALL OF CANADA. 



"^n 



m^h--Mmhi.§d^>^^m%^^^s - 



calm, who 

commandetl 

the Frencli 

forces, wa'- 

extremely 

vigilant. He 

kept his 

horses saddled 

da}' and night to ride 

to any point that might be 

assailed, and he did not take 

off his clothes for nearly three 

months. 

Wolfe put his men in 
boats and dropped down, • ""' 
in the night, from the fleet 
above the town to a little 
bay, now known as Wolfe's 
Cove. Twenty -four volun- 
teers climbed the steep preci- 
pice by a rough path and 
drove off the guard at the 
top. When firing was 
heard, the whole force 
landed and clambered up 
the rocky steep, holdin 
by bushes. When 
morning came, the 
British soldiers 
w^ere in line of 
battle on the r?, 
" Plains of Abra- -i', 




138 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



Defeat of the 
French on the 
"Plains of Ab 
ham." Death 
Wolfe and Mo 



ham," less than a mile from 
Quebec, where the French 
must fight or have their sup- 
plies cut off. 

Montcalm attacked imme- 
diately, but his ranks were bro- 
ken by the steady English fire, and Wolfe led 
a charge in person. Though twice wound- 
ed by bullets, Wolfe kept on until a shot en- 
tered his breast, inflicting a mortal wound. When told 
that the enemy were fleeing everywhere, he said, " Now, 
of God be praised, I die in peace!" Montcalm, who was 
''" also mortally wounded, said, " I am happy that I shall 





Fall of Quebec, 



ceded to the 
English, 1763. 



not live to see the sur- 
render of Quebec." 
Quebec soon capitu- 
lated, and the fate of Can- 
ada was sealed. The French attempted to retake the 
city in vain. The surrender of Montreal, in 1760, com- 



FALL OF CAXADA. 



139 



pleted the conquest of Canada b}- the English. By the 
treaty between England and France, made in 1763, all 
the French possessions in America east of the Missis- 
sippi, except a district around New Orleans, were ceded 
to England. 

The jo}' in the colonies knew no bounds. The peo- Rejoic 
pie had seen their shipping cut off by privateers, their 
property wasted by taxation, their paper money depre- 
ciated, and their young men destro3-ed b}- almost con- 
tinual war. The frontiers had been desolated by the 
Indians, under French influence, for three quarters of a 
centur}-. Now they looked forward to peace, and the 
expansion of the English settlements in America into a 
vast empire. 




CHAPTER XXIV. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COLONIAL WARS 
WITH THE FRENCH. 

The English and French regulars wore neat 

uniforms. The French were remarkable a long 
way off for the white, the English for the 
red, which predominated in their dress. The 
drill of regular soldiers was careful, and their 

discipline severe. They fought with great 
steadiness, standing up and facing the enemy, 

and they and their officers held in contempt 
the skulking way of fighting which prevailed 

among the colonial troops on both sides. 




140 



HISTORY OF THE V.MTED STATES. 



The An 
troops. 




NADIAN SOLDIER. 



British officers 
and colonial sol- 





The Americans, in both the French and English colo- 
nies, had learned to tight in the woods. The)- loaded 
their guns lying on the ground, and they fired from be- 
hind trees and stumps, now running forward and now re- 
treating and charging again. The regular troops took 
no definite aim, but fired at the enemy's line, while 
the colonists were the best marksmen in the world, and 
the man whom one of them covered with his gun was 
generally doomed. In the first siege of Louisbourg the 
victor}- was achieved by the deadly aim with which 
colonial musketeers picked off French artillery-men. At 
the battle of Lake George it was said that the American 
provincials fought in the morning like good boys, about 
noon like men, and in the afternoon like demons. 

The British officers were generally incapable of get- 
ting on well with the American soldiers. Thcv looked 
with contempt on men who wore little or no imiform, 
were often tattered, slovenly, and even barefoot, and 
sometimes carried in the same company guns of the 
various sorts they had used in hunting. The Amer- 
icans made a bad show on parade, and refused 
to fight standing up in close ranks. By the side 
of the neatly-kept, red-coated British troops, 
the American militia looked shabby enough. 
The British officers holding the king's commission as- 
sumed to command American officers of higher rank, 
and this caused a dislike of the English to spread 
through the colonies. Pitt ordered that the American 
officers should take equal rank with the British, and 
this order gave great satisfaction in America. 

The English troops were rather unfit for the work 
of fighting in the woods. " Our clothes, our arms. 



COLONIAL WARS WITH THE FRENCH. 



141 




our accoutrements, even our shoes and stockings, are English 
all improper for this country," wrote General Wolfe Howes 
from America. Lord Howe, who was one of the 
noblest of men and best of generals, changed the 
dress of his men to fit them for marching in the wil- 
derness. Hair was worn long in that day, and Lord 
Howe cut off his own fine head of hair to persuade 
the men to sacrifice theirs. He reduced the officers' 
baggage, and dismissed the great company of washer- 
women, setting a good example by washing his own 
linen in the brook. Lord Howe cultivated the friend- 
ship of the American officers, and treated the soldiers 
with great respect. He was second in command to 
Abercromby, and was killed in a skirmish 
just before the attack on Ticonderoga. 
The defeat of Abercromby in the battle 
which followed is attributed to the loss o 
Lord Howe, who was the re 
soul of the army. (See the 
preceding chapter.) 

It was impossible to keep 
troops enough in the field to 
protect the long frontier. No 
one could tell where the 



troops in 
ds. Lord 
reforms. 



Indians would strike, 
and when they had mas 
sacred a fam- 
ily they es- 
caped too . 
swiftly for 
pursuit. The 
colonies were 




142 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



driven to offer rewards for the scalps of Indians as 
they were accustomed to pay for wolves' heads. One 
can see how barbarous their feelings were, however, 
in the offer of smaller rewards for the scalps of Indian 
women and children. 

The perils of the frontier led to the formation of com- 
panies of rangers, who fought the Indians in their own 
way. In the South the rangers were mostly mounted 
men, who scoured the frontier to intercept any companies 
of Indians which might invade the settlements. Rangers 
were also employed to assist the armies in the field by 
capturing stragglers from whom information could be 
gained, and by traversing the woods to guard against sur- 
prise. 

One of these rangers, Major Robert Rogers, became 
very famous for his daring expeditions in the region 
about Lake George. He had many desperate fights with 
the French. He and his men journeyed on skates or 
snow-shoes in winter, and in light whale-boats or afoot in 
summer. His main objects were to capture prisoners for 
information and to annoy the enemy. Once, with fifty 
men, he carried his light whale-boats six miles over a 
mountain-gorge, from near the middle of Lake George 
to the waters of Lake Champlain, and then rowed with 
muffled oars under the French fort at Ticonderoga, so 
close as to hear the sentry give the watchword, and then 
passed the fort at Crown Point in the same way. He 
captured and sunk two sloops laden with provisions, hid 
his boats, and got back afoot to Lake George. Afterward 
he returned and reconnoitred Lake Champlain in his 
boats, captured some prisoners, and again hid his boats. 
This time the French found the boats, and sent out scouts 



COLOXIAL WARS WITH THE FRENCH. 



143 



to find some water-passage by which they could have 
conic into Lake Champlain, not suspecting that they 
could have been carried over. Rogers, when unable to 
capture any stragglers, once determined to get informa- 
tion b\' securing a sentinel on duty. With five men he 
walked coolly up to a sentinel near the French fort. 
When challenged, he answered in French. Then, when 
he had got near the soldier, and the latter demanded, in 




amazement, "Who are you?" he answered, "Rogers," 
and took him prisoner. There is a tradition that, in es- 
caping from the Indians, he once threw his packs down a 
steep rock to the ice on Lake George, and then turned 
round on his snow-shoes and walked away with his snow- 
shoes reversed. The Indians, seeing the tracks, believed 
that two men had approached and slid down the fright- 
ful slope. The place is still known as " Rogers's Slide." 



144 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Evil influences of III many ways the French wars tended to corrupt 

the French wars. i ' c i i • 

the people oi the colonies. A race of traders secretly 
sold arms to the Indians that were butchering their own 
people. Another set of men, some of whom were con- 
nected with the government, sold provisions to the 
French. Very many embarked in privateering — that 
is, they fitted out ships to capture and plunder the 
merchant-ships of France. This was only a kind of law- 
ful piracy. Many of the soldiers who returned from the 
war had learned habits of idleness and dissipation. 

Sorrows of the The sorrows inflicted on both the French and English 

colonists were more than can be imagined. The frontier 
people lived in continual fear of sudden death by the 
tomahawk, or slow death by torture. Yet their courage 
grew with their danger. 

"Loveweiis Of all the engagements on the Northern frontier none 

excited so much interest as that of Captain Lovewell's 
thirty-four men with a party of forty-two Indians who 
ambushed the white men near the present site of Frye- 
burg in Maine. The fight lasted from ten in the morning 
till night, when the Indians retreated. One half of Love- 
well's party was killed, including the captain, who fell at 
the first fire, and the j-oung chaplain Frye, who was left 
wounded and dying in the woods. This melancholy 
struggle was celebrated in a rude ballad that became 
" the most beloved song of all New England." Its nar- 
rative of blood and desperation suited the gloomy 
taste of the time, and it was long chanted by colo- 
nial firesides. 

Captivity in Can- In 1689 captivcs taken in Maine were carried to 

ada and among _., 1 1 i 1 r^ 

the Indians. Canada and sold there. From that time forward innu- 

merable people captured on the frontier by the Indians 



COLONIAL WARS WITH Tf/E FRENCH. 



H5 



were sold into Canada, enduring horrible sufferings in 

their forced journeys through the woods. Man}- of 

these were ransomed by their friends. Husbands made 

dangerous and 

sorrowful )oui 

neys to re 

deem 




WHITE CAPTIVES 

DRIVEN INTO CANADA 

BY INDIANS. 



parents went in search ol their children, 
passion was excited in New England for the captives, 
and collections were frequently made for their redemp- 
tion. Sometimes captive children were reclaimed who 
had been educated in French, and had quite forgotten 
the language and the religion of their parents. 

One of the first of many thousands of captives carried 
to Canada was a little girl named Sarah Gerrish. An 
Indian girl once tried to drown her by pushing her off 
a precipice into the river, but she saved herself by catch- 
ing hold of the bushes. Once she was so weary that she 
overslept, and awoke to find herself alone in the woods 
and covered with snow. She followed the tracks of the 
Indians until she overtook them. Again, the Indians 
built a great fire, and told her that she was to be burned, 
but she threw her arms around her Indian master's neck 



Incidents of 
:aptivity. 



146 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



and begged liim to save her. She was sold to the French 
in Canada, and kindly treated by them until she was 
returned. In the fall of 1677 two men, White and Jen- 
nings, set out from the Connecticut River for Canada, 
to redeem their wives and children carried off by Indians. 
Without guides they paddled through Lake Champlain 
and reached Canada. After seven months' absence they 
l)rought back about twenty captives in all. The people 
sent horses to meet them at Albanv and bring them into 
Hatfield, where they were received with the greatest 
joy. One woman, when she got her children together, 
after captivity, found one of her sons, a lad of eleven, 
an Indian in habits, and not able to speak any but the 
Indian language ; while a daughter of fifteen, who had 
been educated in a Canadian convent, spoke nothing but 
French. One Pennsylvanian got home just as the sale 
of his property at auction had been completed, his neigh- 
bors having supposed him dead. James Smith, having 
endured six years of captivity among the Indians, came 
home a few days after his sweetheart had married an- 
other man. 

The Canadians were generally kind to the captives 
that fell into their hands, and some of the prisoners were 
very sorry to return. Many of the captives remained 
among the savages ; one Indian village contained a hun- 
dred white people carried away in childhood. These 
had forgotten how to speak English. Some of the 
Indian tribes doubled their numbers in the last French 
war by adopting white children. Three thousand men, 
women, and children, were carried into captivity from 
Pennsylvania and the provinces south of it in the 
year 1756. 



COLONIAL IVALiS WITH THE FRENCH. 



147 



The colonies did not immediately have peace. The Pontia 
Indians of the Western country hated the English, and 
the occupation of the old French forts by small English 
garrisons excited their jealousy. Under the lead of 
Pontiac, an Ottawa chief, a great conspiracy was formed 
in 1763, the year of the peace. Pontiac had arranged 
a treaty-meeting with Major Gladwvn, the officer in Fort 
Detroit. He and other chiefs had tiled off the barrels 
of their guns so as to carry them hidden under their 
blankets. They intended, by a treacherous surprise dur- 
ing the meeting in the cmmcil-room of the fort, to cut 
off the whole garrison. But an Indian girl revealed the 
plot to the commander, and the chiefs found the fort 
bristling with bayonets, and gave over their assault. 
But, a few days later, they laid siege to the fort, which, 
however, succeeded in holding out for five months, when 
the Indians abandoned the siege. Many of the smaller 
frontier forts were taken and the inmates massacred. 
Fort Pitt, where Pittsburg now stands, was at- 
tacked, but succeeded in holding out against the 
savages. The settlers on the frontier suffered 
horrible inroads from the savages. It became 
necessary to march forces into the Indian coun- 
try. General Bouquet, with five hundred men, 
defeated a large body of Indians in a desperate redoubt 
two days' battle at Bushy Run, in Pcnnsvlvania, 
in 1763. " Pontiac's War," as it was called, was brought 
to a close in 1764, and the frontiers had a brief rest. 
But already there were seen the beginnings of that 
great quarrel of the Americans with the mother-country 
which brought on the bitter struggle of the Revolution- 
ary War, with new horrors from fresh Indian wars. 




1^3 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED. 
Three forms of The closc of the Frciich war made way for the 

government in _ -' 

the colonies, Rcvolution. But, bcfore we consider the events which 

led to the separation of the colonies from England, it 
will be best to ask, How were the colonies governed 
at the close of the French wars? There were three 
forms of government in America — "royal," "charter," 
and " proprietar}-." 
Colonies under Xhc oldcst colony, Virginia, after the Virginia Com- 

ments, pany was dissolved, was under what was called a ro3-al 

government, because the king appointed the governor, 
and approved or disapproved of the laws that were 
passed. New York had been granted to the Duke of 
York as a proprietary government, but when that duke 
became king, as James II, it became a royal, or king's 
province. New Jersey became a royal colony after the 
king bought the right of the proprietors, and East and 
West Jersey were united. The two Carolinas were 
proprietar}- governments at first, but in 1729 the king 
bought out the proprietary rights, and they became 
royal governments. Georgia was first settled under a 
body of twenty-one trustees, but in 1752 these trustees 
surrendered the government to the king. In 1679 
New Hampshire was separated from Massachusetts, and 
became a royal colony. So that, after 1752, there were 
seven colonies under royal governments, namely, Vir- 
ginia, New York, New Jersey, North and South Caro- 
lina, Georgia, and New Hampshire. 



IfOlV THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED. 



149 



Three colonies — Massachusetts, Connecticut, and colonies u 

charter go 

Rhode Island — were under charter governments ; that ments. 
is, they were for the most part governed by their own 
people, according to charters granted by the king. 
Massachusetts, after it lost its first charter, had a gov- 
ernor appointed by the king, but the power remained 
mostly in the hands of the Legislature. Maine was at- 
tached to Massachusetts. 

Maryland had been given to Lord Baltimore, Penn- colonies u 
sylvania to William Penn. Baltimore and Penn were ernments. 
called " proprietors," or " proprietaries." The heirs 
of these first proprietors exercised in these two colo- A\ 

nies power somewhat similar to those of the king 
in the royal colonies. These were called pro- 
prietary governments. Delaware had been ceded 
to Penn by the Duke of York, and, though it 
had a separate Legislature, it was under the 
same governor as Pennsylvania. There were, 
therefore, at the close of the French wars, three 
proprietary governments — Maryland, Pennsylvania, and 
Delaware. 

Each of the thirteen colonies had a legislative body. 
These were divided into two houses. There was a 
Lower House, or Assembly, elected by the people. The 
members of the Upper House, or Council, were generally 
appointed by the king in the ro3'al colonies, and by the 
proprietary in the proprietary colonies. In the charter 
colonies governors and members of the Council were 
elected b}' the Assembly. 

In order to pass a law both houses of the Legis- 
lature must vote for it and the governor must agree 
to it. We have kept the same rule. Our State and 




ISO 



HISrORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



national laws are made in this way now. The body 
we call the Senate takes the place occupied by the 
governor's Council in the colonies. But in our time 
the people elect the governors and both houses of the 
Legislature. In nearly all of the colonies the people 
had no voice in choosing the governor or the Upper 
House of the Legislature. The people could not, there- 
fore, make laws which were not agreeable to the king 
or the proprietary. There was, consequently, almost a 
continual quarrel between the governors, acting under 
instructions from England, and the representatives of 
the people. 

As the people of the colonies had no influence in the 
selection of their governors, they were generally un- 
worthy men. At first they were often the relatives of 
court favorites ; in later days they were frequently 
selected to please some influential man who could con- 
trol the vote of a representative in Parliament. Some 
of them were ignorant and tyrannical, some were dissi- 
pated, and others were greedy money-getters. Lord 
Cornbury, who governed New York, was a cousin of 
Queen Anne. He squandci'ed the resources of the col- 
ony, imprisoned whom he pleased, and rendered himself 
contemptible by occasionally masquerading in women's 
clothes. Andros, Governor of New York and New Eng- 
land, was a tyrant unmitigated in most of his acts. Many 
of the governors gave themselves up to securing a for- 
tune by any means in their power, and some succeeded. 
Sir William Berkeley in Virginia arrogated to himself 
one third of the gross returns of the Indian trade ; Gov- 
ernor Fletcher in New York sold licenses to pirates to 
live unmolested in his province ; and Governor Eden, of 



HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED. 



151 



North Carolina, was believed to be a partner in Black- 
beard's spoils. To increase their profits the governors 
would sometimes overthrow land-titles already granted, 
thus obliging the owner to pay them large fees for new 
grants. Royal governors generally acted as judges, sit- 
ting in the highest court, and thus they held two thirds 
of the authority of their colony. As they had a power 
of appointment to and removal from many ofifices, they 
could do pretty much as they pleased. The only check 
on them was the right of the Assembly to fix the salary 
of a governor from year to year. All the governors 
were not bad ; some, like Spotswood in Virginia, Robert 
Johnston in South Carolina, and Dongan, Bellomont, 
and Burnet in New York, were conspicuous for public 
spirit. But the exasperation which the colonists felt 
toward most of their governors was a source of aliena- 
tion from the mother-country. 

All laws regulating the trade between the colonies commercial lav 

* "= made by the 

and with other countries were made by the English English Pariia- 

Parliament. The colonies were obliged, often much 

against their will, to admit negro slaves, brought in by 

English merchants. They were forced to send nearly 

all their leading products to England for sale. They 

were not allowed to buy any European goods, except in 

England, and no foreign ships were allowed to enter a 

port in this country. Laws were made to discourage 

people in the colonies from making and trading in such 

things as were made in England. There were English 

laws against the manufacture of iron-ware and woolen 

goods by the Americans. The colonists had many furs, 

and could make hats very cheaply, but no hatter was 

allowed to send hats from one colony to another ; he 



152 



mSTORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 




Custon 
and sn 



could even be punished (or load- 
ing his hats on a horse to carry 
them to another colony. 

Custom-houses were established 
by law in all the principal ports of 
the colonies, and the duties were 
collected for the king. The object 
of these duties was not so much the 
revenue derived from them, as the 
effect of duties on foreign goods in 
compelling the colonists to buy 
chiefly products of English manu- 
facture, and in enabling the officers 
to exclude goods not brought from 
England. But the colonists evaded 
these restrictive laws in everv way possible, and there 
was a great deal of smuggling along the whole coast. 
Goods were secretly landed in the lonesome creeks 
on Long Island or in little bays to the southward. 
Much smuggling was done by bribing the customs col- 
lectors, and sometimes the governors as well. Chests 
of tea were often packed in the middle of hogsheads of 
sugar, and thus brought in from the West India islands 
instead of from England, as required by act of Parlia- 
ment. Tobacco, which could only be lawfuU}- shipped 
to English ports, was put aboard Dutch ships at sea 
from American vessels, or from little boats that ran out 
of creeks along the James River or the Chesapeake. 
The people thus learned to disregard the Jaws of the 
mother-country, and by the unwise acts of Parliament 
the minds of the colonists were prepared for resistance 
to English authority. 



Early struggles for liberty. 



153 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

EARLY STRUGGLES FOR LIBERTY IN THE COLONIES. 
The colonies were settled at a time when the Eng- Love of liberty 

. . r '" ^^^ colonists 

lish people were trying to establish the principles of 
liberty in their own government. Many of the colo- 
nists were driven to this country by acts of tyranny. 
The settlers in America brought with them the English 
love of liberty. They were always ready to assert their 
right to " the liberties of Englishmen." Then, too, the 
hardy, independent life of pioneer settlers tended to 
cherish the passion for freedom. 

Free government was first established in America Ear'y struggles 

for liberty in 

by the Virginia charter of 161 8, as we have seen in a Virginia, 
previous chapter. The king, in dissolving the Virginia 
Company, struck a blow at the liberty of the colony, 
but the people strove hard to maintain their freedom. 
When, in 1624, the clerk of the Virginia Council be- 
trayed their secrets to the king's commissioners, the Vir- 
ginia Assembly sent him to the pillory, and had part of 
his ears cut off, to the great disgust of King James. 
When Sir John Harvey was Governor of Virginia, he 
opposed the people, and the Council deposed him in 
1635, and sent him to England. King Charles I was 
offended at their presumption in deposing a royal gov- 
ernor, and he sent him back again as governor. But 
the people succeeded in having him removed in 1639. 

Sir William Berkeley, the royal Governor of Virginia, Bacons rebei- 

"^ lion. 

opposed the people, and in 1676 refused to allow them to 
make war on the Indians, who were ravaging the front- 



154 



H/STOJiY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



iers. This he did, lest the large profits he was making 
out of the fur-trade should be reduced. The people of 
the frontier put themselves under the lead of a brilliant 




young man, Nathaniel Bacon by name. Bacon belonged 
to a family prominent in the county of Suffolk, in Eng- 
land. He was educated in the law at Cambridge. His 
habits, like those of other young gentlemen of the time, 
had been extravagant, and he exceeded the allowance 
made him by his father. About 1673 he went to Vir- 
ginia, where he had a cousin, also named Nathaniel Ba- 
con, who was rich and childless, and who wished to make 
the younger Nathaniel heir to his fortune, if he could 
have persuaded him not to embrace the popular cause. 
But the generous heart of the younger Bacon was 
touched with the wrongs of the j)eople, and, though he 
had been appointed a member of the governor's Council, 
he yielded to the request of the people and became their 



EARLY STRUGGLES FOR LLBERTY. 



155 



leader. He showed excellent ability, and he was idolized 
by the people, who stood guard day and night over his 
house lest he should be assassinated by order of the 
governor. 

Bacon forced the government to give him a com- Bacon again; 

. . , , 1 T • 1 ""= Indians. 

mission, and he got the Legislature to pass some good 
laws, that were much needed. Then he marched 
against the Indians and drove them back, to the great 
relief of the suffering people of the frontier. He was 
a good Indian fighter, but, like most men of that time, 
he showed no mercy to the savages, whose torture 
of their prisoners had awakened the most violent re- 
sentment. In fighting the Indians he caused his men to 
stand so close to their fort that they could lire through 
the port-holes, and yet, by standing at one side, escape 
the fire of the Indians. 

When Bacon got back from the Indian war and had siege and de 

. . struction of 

dismissed a part of his men, he found that Berkeley had Jamestown, 
proclaimed him a rebel, and taken measures to have him 
arrested. With a little handful of men, he marched 
swiftly on Jamestown, which was garrisoned by a force 
five times as strong. As he passed along the road the 
people brought out food to refresh his soldiers, and the 
women cried after him, " General, if you need help, send 
for us! " He promptly threw up a trench on the narrow 
neck of land that connected Jamestown with the main- 
land, and, after a week of siege, he took it and burned 
it to the ground. 

Governor Berkeley fled to the Eastern Shore of Virginia und( 
Chesapeake Bay, and the people of Virginia, except the 
few on the eastern side of the bay, took an oath to sup- 
port Bacon, hailing him as a deliverer. 



156 



HISTORY OF THE U XI TED STATES. 



Bacon's death. But Bacon was worn out b}' the cares and exposures 

of the Indian war and the Jamestown siege, and he soon 
died. His body was secretly buried by his friends, who 
sunk it in the waters of the river, in order that his ene- 
mies might not dig up his bones. The only document 
to be found that appears to have been written by Bacon's 
own hand is signed " Nathaniel Bacon, General, by con- 
sent of the people " — so that he was something of a 
republican, though he lived a hundred years before the 
Revolution. With all the vigor of his measures, he was 
ever lenient to his foes. When he was dead, his enemies 
testified that he was "not bloody-minded." His military 
and political devices and the celerity of his actions and 
decisions show that he was a man of genius. Indeed, 
" Nat Bacon," as he was called, is the most romantic 
and heroic figure, take him all in all, of the colonial 
period of our histor}-. 

Bevkeieys re- After Bacon's death there was no one his equal to 

protect the cause of the people. Sir William Berkeley 
succeeded after a while in reducing Bacon's followers, 
and in confiscating for his own use much of their prop- 
erty. Twenty-three leading men he put to death. For 
this severity the king recalled him in disgrace, and the 
old despot died at last of chagrin. 

Soon after Massachusetts had been settled, under the 
patent or charter of the Massachusetts Company (see 
pages 40, 41), an attempt was made to destroy that 
charter by the same kind of a lawsuit that had been 
used to overthrow the charter of the Virginia Company. 
But the Massachusetts charter had been carried to 
America, and, when the judges in England sent orders 
to have it brought back to be examined, the rulers of 



At 


ter 


npts 


1 to dis- 


sol 


ve 


the 


Massa- 


chi 




:tts 


charter 


in 


th 


e re 


ign of 


Ch 


ar) 


les 1 





EARLY STRUGGLES FOR LIBERTY. 



157 




the colony made excuses until the troubles in England 
caused the matter to be laid aside. 

In the reign of Charles II, proceedings were again Massachusetts 

1 • i-\T 1 \ • ^ ^ • rebels against 

taken agamst the Massachusetts charter, and in 1686 it Governor Andr 
was dissolved. King James II, who had by this time 
come to the throne, soon after appointed Sir Edmund 
Andros Governor of New York and New England 
He tried in every way to overthrow the libeities 
of the colonies. The people of New England were 
exasperated to the highest pitch, and when the> 
heard that the Prince of Orange had landed in Eng- 
land, to overthrow James II, they rose against An- 
dros and imprisoned him, establishing a government governor andros. 
of their own. This was in 1689. 

During the time that Andros was governor of all The charter of 

Connecticut hid- 

New England, he had tried to carry off the Connecti- den in an oak. 
cut charter. But it is said that, when the charter was 
brought in and laid on the table, the lights were sud- 
denly blown out, and when they were lighted the charter 
was gone. It had been taken awa}- and hidden in the 
hollow of an oak-tree. This tree stood for nearly a hun- 
dred and seventy j'ears after, and was always venerated 
as " the Charter Oak." 

Andros was supreme Governor of New York as well Leisier's rebel- 
lion in NewYork 

as of New England. In New York there was also great 
dissatisfaction with his government, and, when the com- 
mon people heard that Andros had been put in prison 
in Boston, they rose against his lieutenant, and set up 
Captain Jacob Leisler for governor. Leisler, who gov- 
erned the colony for more than two years, was a plain 
merchant, with no knowledge of government. He was 
bitterly opposed by the rich men of the colony. Though 



158 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



a man of patriotism, he was imprudent, and, after the 
arrival of a royal governor, his enemies succeeded in 
having him executed for treason. 
Rebellion against The propHetors of Carolina governed their two colo- 

the proprietors in 

South Carolina, nics in z. sclfish and greedy spirit, and were, besides, ig- 
norant of the wants and character of their people. The 
North Carolinians were often in insurrection against the 
governors sent to rule them. In 17 19 the people of 
South Carolina overthrew the oppressive government 
of the lords-proprietors and put themselves under the 
authority of the king, who bought out all the rights of 
the proprietors ten years later. 

Legislative re- The Spirit of liberty was in all the colonies. The 

sistance to colo- 
nial governors. govemors appointed in England made continual efforts 

to encroach on the freedom of the people. These gov- 
ernors, as the direct representatives of the sovereign, 
were able to engross a great deal of power in their own 
hands, and to enrich themselves and their creatures out 
of the resources of the colonies. They were held in 
check, as we have said, by the disposition of the colo- 
nial Assemblies to settle the amount of their salaries 
from year to year. English statesmen greatly desired 
to have permanent salaries fi.ved for the governors, so 
that they might not be dependent on anybody but the 
king. On this point there were long-continued quarrels 
between the royal governors and the Assemblies ; but, 
for the most part, the colonies held the purse-strings in 
their own hands, in order by this means to guard their 
liberties. 



RST'-^rr^- 




THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. j eg 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 
From the precedino: chapter it is evident that lono- General causes 

^ ^ ^ * of discontent. 

before the Revolution there was much dissatisfaction in 
the colonies. Many of the governors sent over were 
t3'rannical and dishonest. The Americans did not like 
the transportation of criminals, nor the action of the 
British government in annulling the laws made to keep 
out slaves. They were also much annoyed by English 
laws, which prevented them from sending away woolen 
goods, hats, and iron-wares of their o^v•n make, from one 
colony to another. Most of all, they disliked the " navi- 
gation laws," the object of which was to compel them 
to do most of their trading with England. 

The enforcement of these unpopular laws was in the The writs of 
hands of custom-house officers. The collectors of cus- 
toms in Boston, in 1761, asked the courts for "writs of 
assistance," which would give them the right to search 
any house, at anv time, for the purpose of finding 
smuggled goods. This produced a great exxitement, 
and made the navigation laws still more unpopular. The 
trial which took place about these writs was a kind of 
beginning of the quarrel which brought on the Revo- 
lution fourteen years afterward. 

But England and the colonies, while always carry- The stamp Act. 
ing on a family quarrel, had little thought of separat- 
ing. Separation would probably have come when the 
colonies grew too large to be dependent, but this might 
at least have been postponed for two or three gen 



i6o 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Violent oppo- 
sition to the 
Stamp Act. 



Career of Ja 
Otis. 




erations if the men who ruled England had not tried 
to tax the American colonies. Parliament passed, in 
1765, what was known as "The Stamp Act." This law 
required that all bills, notes, leases, and many other 
such documents used in the colonies, should be written 
on stamped paper, which should be sold by officers 
at such prices as should bring a revenue to the Eng- 
lish government. x\ll newspapers were required to be 
printed on stamped paper. 

The American people quickly saw that, if the Brit- 
ish Parliament could pass such an act, they could tax 
America in any other way. The cry was raised in all the 
colonies, " No taxation without representation ! " Patrick 
Henr)', a brilliant speaker, took the lead in the agitation 
in Virginia, and James Otis, an eloquent Boston lawyer, 
was the principal orator in Massachusetts. 

Otis was born at what is now West Barnstable, on 
Cape Cod, in 1725. After studying in his native town 
he went to Harvard College, where he was graduated 
when he was eighteen \-ears old. But, wishing to lay a 
good foundation, he spent a year and a half more 
in general studies before he entered on the studv of 
the law. He practiced at first at Plvmouth and 
afterward in Boston. He rose to the highest rank 
in his profession. He was an honorable man, and 
would never take unfair advantages of an opponent. 
When the customs officers applied for '' writs of assist- 
ance," which would enable them to search any house 
at any time, it became the duty of Otis, as advocate- 
general, to argue in favor of these writs. But he 
gave up his lucrative office and took the side of lib- 
erty. He made a great speech, five hours long, against 



THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 



l6l 



the writs, and this speech is considered by some the 
starting-point of the Revolution. It was in this 
speech that he first raised the popular cry against 
"taxation without representation," which was the 
watchword of the Revolution. In the great 
struggle over the Stamp Act, and in the debates 
that followed, to 1769, he was the brilliant leader. 
When the bitterness of the controversy with '' 
England was at its height he became involved in 
an affray with several officers of the customs, and 
was seriously injured. Soon after this his mind, 
wearied by the exciting controversies in which he was 
engaged, became gradually deranged, and he retired 
from public affairs. In 1783 he was killed by a stroke 
of lightning. 

Patrick Henry was born in Hanover County, Vir- 
ginia, in 1736. He was chiefly educated in a school 
taught by his father. He read law and began the prac- 
tice of his profession. In 1763 he was engaged to plead 
in defense of the people against a suit of the parish 
clergy. It was known as " The Parsons' 
Cause." Before a court, in which his 
own father was the presiding magis- 
trate, he pleaded the case of the people 
with such extraordinary eloquence and 
vehemence that the clergymen rose 
and left the room, and Henry's 
father wept tears of triumph, while 
the people carried the young lawyer 
about on their shoulders. Elected 
to the Virginia Legislature, he immediately took the 
lead against the Stamp Act and became famous. It 




Rise of Pair 
Henry. 




court-hoube, virginia, 
;k henry spoke against the 
parsons' cause. 



l62 



HISTORY OF THE U.VITED STATES. 



General oppo- 
sition to the 
Stamp Act. 



was in his speech on the Stamp Act that he uttered the 
famous words, " Cassar had his Brutus, Charles the First 
his Cromwell, and George the Third — " As Henry 
reached this point his opponents cried " Treason ! trea- 
son ! " But the orator finished by saying, " may profit 
by their example," and added, " if that be treason, 
make the most of it ! " When pleading for the organi- 
zation of the Virginia militia, before the Revolutionary 
War had begun, he closed with these memorable words : 
" Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased 
at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it. Al- 
mighty God! I know not what course others may 
take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death ! " 
Henry was several times Governor of Virginia. He 
died in 1799. 

Under the lead of Otis and Henry and other speak- 
ers and writers of great influence, the new movement 
against the Stamp Act became a tide hard to resist. 
The rivalries and jealousies between the various colo- 
nies died out in the new patriotic feeling, and the ex- 
citement ran like a flame of fire from New Hampshire 
to Georgia. There was everywhere a call for union 
among the colonies. A congress of delegates from 
nine of the colonies met in New York in October, 
1765. It is known as "The Stamp-Act Congress." But 
the people were too much excited to stop at orderly 
measures. In colony after colony violent mobs com- 
pelled the stamp-officers to resign. In some places the 
people pulled down or rifled the houses of British offi- 
cials. The authority of the king and Parliament was 
defied. Not one man in all the colonies dared to sell 
a piece of stamped paper. 



THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. jg. 

Though America had ahnost no manufactures, the The ah 



:lot to 
import English 
goods. Repeal of 
the Stamp Act. 



merchants pledged themselves to import no EngHsh 
goods until the Stamp Act was repealed. As black 
goods came from England, the people resolved to wear 
no black at funerals, and they began to dress in home- 
spun. They resolved, also, to eat no more mutton, in 
order to increase their own production of wool. English 
merchants, whose trade was hurt by these measures, 
now joined in the clamor for the repeal of the Stamp 
Act, and it was repealed in 1766, to the great joy of the 
colonies. 

But Parliament passed another bill at the same time, other acts of 

. , 1 1 • -vT r oppression. 

asserting its right to tax the colonies. New ways of 
raising a revenue in America, without the consent of the 
people, were tried. I'roops were quartered in the colo- 
nies, and the people were required to pay the expense. 
This the colonies refused to do. In 1770 a collision took 
place between British troops and some inhabitants of 
Boston. Three of the people were killed. This was 
called " The Boston Massacre." It excited deep feel- 
ing in all the colonies, and Samuel Adams, the leader 
of the Boston town-meeting, with five thousand citi- 
zens at his back, compelled the governor to with- 
draw the troops from the city. 

Samuel Adams was a great Revolutionary char- 
acter, ranking not a whit below Henry or Otis in 
his influence on the early stages of the movement. ^ 
Adams was born in Boston in 1722. He was graduated 

at Harvard College at twenty 3'ears of age. He was s 

s 
already devoted to liberty, and his oration when he 

received the degree of master of arts defended the right 

of the people to resist the supreme magistrate, " if the 




164 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



commonwealth can not otherwise be preserved." He 
was one of the first to oppose taxation by Parliament, 
and he early became the chief organizer and leader of 
the revolutionary movement in Massachusetts. He is 
said to have proposed the Congress of 1774. When 
General Gage offered pardon to the Americans, he ex- 
cepted Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Adams was 
a member of the Continental Congress and a principal 
advocate of American independence. He lived a pure 
and incorruptible life, and, though always poor, the 
king could not buy him from the path of virtue. He 
died in 1803. 
Opposition to the Yielding in part to the storm in America, the Parlia- 

tax on tea. 

ment took the tax off of nearly everything except tea. 
By releasing a part of the English duty on tea sent to 
America, the government arranged it so that the Ameri- 
cans, after paying a tax in America, would have their tea 
cheaper than before. The Americans were not contend- 
ing for a little money, but for a principle, and they re- 
fused to receive the tea. They began to drink tea made 
of sassafras-roots, sage, raspberry-leaves, yaupon, and 
other American plants. The English government sent 
over consignments of tea to the principal ports. At Bos- 
ton a company of fifty men, disguised as Mohawk In- 
dians, boarded the ships and emptied three hundred and 
forty-two chests of tea into the sea. This is known as 
" The Boston Tea-Pafty." In New York the people 
emptied a private consignment of tea into the water, and 
the ships which were sent by the government the}' com- 
pelled to go back to England. Philadelphia also sent the 
tea-ships home again. In Charleston the tea was landed, 
but purposely stored in damp cellars, where it rotted ; 



THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. 



165 



and at Annapolis, a ship that 
had paid the duty on a pri 
vate consignment of tea 
was burned in the harbor. 

The English Parliament pun- 
ished Boston by closing its 
port until the tea thrown 
overboard should be paid for. 
This act produced a great 
deal of distress in Boston, by 
ruining its business and throw- 
ing its working-people out of 
employment. But it ex- 
cited the sympathy of the 
other colonies, who sent aid 
to its people and who resolved 
to support it. A committee in 
New York immediately suggested that Massa- 
chusetts should call a congress, and thus the colo- 
nies were finally brought into a union against the 
mother-country. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



THE OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION AND DECLARATION 
OF INDEPENDENCE. 

Though the Congress of the thirteen colonies which 
met in Philadelphia in 1774 had no authority to make 

1 11 , • 1 • 1 The Congress of 

laws, the people chose to obey its recommendations and 1774. 







i66 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




British troops 
sent from Boston 
to Concord. 




Paul Re 
ride. 



The ' 

men 



to disobey the governors sent to them from 
England. The Congress petitioned the king and 
Parliament to restore their rights. But mean- 
while the colonies organized the militia, and col- 
lected military stores, that they might be ready 
to fight for their liberties. 

General Gage was in command of the Brit- 
ish forces at Boston. He resolved to check the re- 
bellious spirit of the people. He sent out troops 
from Boston before midnight on April 18, 1775, to 
destroy some military stores at Concord, about twen- 
ty miles awa)'. 

Paul Revere, an engraver and an active patriot, 
was sent to tell Samuel Adams and John Han- 
cock, who were at Lexington, that the British- 
were coming. He waited at Charlestown until he 
saw a light hung in a church-steeple, which was 
' a signal to him that the British troops were 
moving. Then he rode to Lexington, warning 
the people of their danger: 
" So through the night rode Paul Revere, 
So through the night went his cry of alarm, 
A cry of defiance and not of fear, 
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, 
And a word that shall echo for evermore ! " 
The poet Longfellow wrote a famous poem on Paul 
Revere's ride, from which the lines above are extracted. 
The Americans had formed companies ready to be 
called out on the minute ; these were called " minute- 
men." At Lexington the British troops fired on the 
minute-men and killed eight of them. At Concord the 
soldiers destroyed the stores. 



THE OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION. 



167 




But the minute-men were now pouring in from the The battle of 

Lexington and 

whole country, and the English troops beat a hasty re- the beginning ot 
treat back through Lexington. The Americans, swarm- 
ing like maddened bees, attacked them in the leai, 
in front, and on both sides. The minute-men fiied 
from behind trees, rocks, and stone fences. The Eng 
lish retreated in a state of exhaustion, with a loss 
in killed and wounded of nearly three hundred 
men ; the Americans lost about eighty -five. 
Messengers on horseback carried the news of the 
" battle of Lexington," as it was called, all over 
New England and into the Middle and Southern colo- 
nies. The people now knew that the war so long 
threatened had begun. 

Soon after the battle of Lexington, Ethan Allen, at the captur 

deroga 

head of eigh- 
ty backwoods- 
men from Ver- 
mont, known as 
" Green Mount- 
ain Boys," made 
a sudden descent 
on Fort Ticon- 
deroga, near the 
s(Tuth end of Lake 
Champlain. En- 
tering the fort 
in the night, he 
found the commander in bed, and 
summoned him to surrender. " In 
whose name?" demanded the of- 
ficer. " In the name of the great 




HISTORY OF THE UKITED STATES. 




The battle of 
Bunker Hill. 



Jehovah and 
the Continent- 
al Congress!" 
replied Allen. 
With the fort 
Allen se- 

cured a sup- 
^ ply of pow- 
I _ . ^^ni^/Q..^t ^^wms^- der, then very 

^^^^^^^i^ll^^a^^^ ^^^^ ^ggjg^ by 

the Americans. 
After the battle of Lexington, an irregular army of 
New-Englanders blockaded the English troops in Bos- 
ton. A detachment sent to encamp on Bunker Hill 
threw up breastworks on Breed's Hill instead. Here, 
on June 17th, the British attacked them with nearly 



THE OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION. 



169 




double their force, and, though the Americans were 
farmers who had never fought, and had almost nothing 
but fowling - pieces to 
fight with, they twice re- 
pulsed the British regu- 
lars with great slaugh- 
ter, and, when their am- 
munition was exhausted, fought with the 
butts and barrels of their guns until 
compelled to retreat. One third of the 
British force was killed or wounded, and 
the result of the battle was to give great 
confidence to the Americans, who have ^^ 

always regarded the battle of Bunker Hill, as it was 
called, more as a victory than a defeat. 

Meantime it fell to the Continental Congress, in ses- Washington 

made command- 

sion in Philadelphia, to elect a commander-m-chief for er-in-chief. 
the new army. Colonel George Washington, of Vir- 
ginia, who had gained distinction for zeal, courage, and 
prudence in the French and Indian wars, was chosen 
to this responsible place. 

George Washington was born in Virginia, February Washington. 
22, 1732. His father was a planter, with a large landed 
property ; his mother was a woman of great force 
of character, but, like many ladies of that day, 
she had little education. Washington got such 
learning as the poor country schools of the 
time afforded, but he made the most of it. His 
exercise-books are models of method and neat- 
ness. Besides the common branches of reading, 
writing, and arithmetic, he learned surveying the revolut 
and book-keeping. He was a lad of great 




170 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



strength, and took the lead in all athletic sports, and he 
became one 
of the best 
horsemen of 
his time. He 
bore hard- 
ships with 
great resolu- 
tion, he spoke 
the truth, he 
was eco 
nomical, 
Indus 

trious, and 

systematic in 

/ his habits. He 

was, while yet 

hardly more than 

a boy, enga^ 

surveying wild lands 

for Lord Fairfax, an 

. / Eng"lish nobleman, who 

y 

/ owned a great tract of Vir- 
ginia territory, and lived in 

the Shenandoah Valley. He 
thus came to know the front- 
ier country and the habits of 
the Indians. He was made a 
major of the militia at nine- 
teen, and he was but twenty- 
one when Governor Dinwiddle 
sent him on a mission to the 




THE OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION. 



171 



French posts on the Ohio, as we have told in another 
chapter. By his prudent conduct in Braddock's and 
Forbes's expeditions, and in the defense of the Virginia 
frontier, he won the confidence of the American peo- 
ple. He was a member of the Continental Congress of 
1774. He was not a brilliant man, but even in 1774 
Patrick Henry pronounced him, for " solid information 
and sound judgment, unquestionably the greatest man" 
on the floor of the Continental Congress. 

In accepting a place at the head of the " Continental '^'^^ English 

r i= i- ^ ^ evacuate Bosto 

Army," as it was called, Washington declined all pay 
except his expenses. He set out for Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, where he took command on July 3, 1775. He 
brought his irregular army to a tolerable state of organi- 
zation, and closely besieged the British in Boston until 
March of the next year, 1776, when he sent a strong force 
to occupy and fortify Dorchester Heights, which com- 
manded the harbor and the town. This compelled the 
English to withdraw their troops from Boston to Hali- 
fax, in Nova Scotia. 

Up to this time the Americans had been fighting for independence 
their liberties as British subjects. Few dreamed that 
the war would end in a separation from the mother- 
country. But now the people were everywhere becom- 
ing weaned from attachment to England. The colo- 
nies, one after another, formed constitutions inde- (f '5^ 
pendent of England, or took steps looking toward 
independence. On the fourth day of July, 1776, the [^'V ^ Jj^ji 
Continental Congress adopted the " Declaration of 
Independence." This act was a formal separation 
of the united colonies from England, whose king tboops at the sou 
was no more to be king in the thirteen colonies. "THrREvoLTTroN."^ 



172 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The Declaratio 
of Independem 



The Declaration says : " We hold these truths to be 
self-evident : That all men are created equal ; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness." The Declaration of Independence 
gives an account of the various acts of tyranny which 
the colonies had suffered under the government of 
George III, and then says: "We therefore, the rep- 
resentatives of the United States of America in general 
Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge 
of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, in the 
name and by the authority of the good people of these 
united colonies, solemnl}' publish and declare that these 
united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and 
independent States ; that they are absolved from all 
allegiance to the British crown, and that all political 
connection between them and the state of Great Britain 
is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free 
and independent States, they have full power to levy 
war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish com- 
merce, and to do all other acts and things which inde- 
pendent States may of right do." This dignified and 
eloquent paper closes with these solemn words: "And 
for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance 
on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually 
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our 
sacred honor." 

This immortal paper, perhaps the most famous state 
paper in the world, was written by Thomas Jefferson, 
who was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1743. His 
father was a noted land-surveyor, and one of the authors 
of a map of Virginia, and he left an ample fortune. 



THE OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION. 



173 



?tt^- 




Thomas was an eager student. He was graduated at 
William and Mary College, and was soon recognized as 
perhaps the most accomplished general scholar in the col- 
onies. He was an 
excellent mathe- 
matician, and 
knew Greek, Lat- 
in, French, Span- 
ish, and Italian. 
There was al- 
most no knowl- 
edge that he was 
not eager to ac- 
quire. He was not gifted as an orator, but with his 
eloquent pen he rendered great services to the cause of 
liberty in America. He used his best endeavor to have 
slavery and the slave-trade abolished. He took the lead 
in the repeal of the colonial laws that gave to the oldest 
son the largest share of the father's property. He was 
also the leader in separating church and state, and giv- 
ing to the people religious freedom. To him we owe 
the change of our money from pounds, shillings, and 
pence to a simple decimal system of dollars, dimes, and 
cents. To him, also, was due at a later period the pur- 
chase from France of the territory west of the Missis- 
sippi. Jefferson's mind was one of the boldest and most 
original of the time. 

But though Jefferson wrote the Declaration, the chief J^^^n Ada 
advocate of the independence of the colonies from the 
earliest period had probably been John Adams, who was 
a forcible speaker. Adams was one of the committee 
which reported Jefferson's draft of the Declaration to 



174 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Congress. Both Adams and Jefferson came to the presi- 
dency of the republic they had helped to found, and by a 
curious coincidence they both died on the same day, and 
that day was the Fourth of July, 1826, just fifty 3'ears 
after the signing of this Declaration of Independence. 




r '. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

the battle of trenton, and the capture of 
burgoyne's army. 

■ J The people received the Declaration with joy. 

A single year of war had destroyed their attach- 
ment to England, and they now earnestly repudiated 
the sovereign whose health they had but lately drunk 
at all festivities, and for whose welfare they had until 




DEbTROYlNG 



GREEN, IN NEW YORK 



THE BATTLE OF TRENTON. 



175 






recently prayed in all their churches. Pictures of the joy of the people 

at the news of 

king were destroyed ; his coat-of-arms was torn down the Declaration 
from public buildings and thrown into patriotic bonfires. ^''°" 

The leaden statue of George III, which stood in Bowl- 
ing Green, in New York city, was run into bullets. 

But the joy of the Americans was soon turned into Arrival of an 

English army 

anxiety. About the time of the adoption of the Decla- "<=2'' n=w York, 
ration of Independence, General Howe landed a large 
body of English troops on Staten Island, near New York, 
and a few days later his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, 
came with re-enforcements. 

The battle of Long Island was fought near Brook- 
lyn, on the 27th of August, 1776. In this battle the *S^^* 
Americans were defeated, and Washington withdrew *■""'"'*'• '-°"° "' 
his tioops from Brooklyn, and left 
the whole of Long Island in the The battle of 
hands of the British. The Amer- 
icans were not strong enough to _ 

hold New York, and it was soon 
evacuated. Fort Washington, above 
New York, with two thousand 
Americans, was captured by the 
British, who soon crossed the Hud- 
son. Washington was obliged to 
retreat, step by step, across New 
Jersey into Pennsylvania, with the 
English following fclose on his heels, the British advance- 
guard sometimes entering a place as the American rear- 
guard quitted it. 

When the news came to Philadelphia that Wash- A'^rm of the 
ington had abandoned New Jersey and crossed the Washington' 

retreat. 

Delaware, there was the greatest alarm. Congress, then 




Long Island, and 
the evacuation 
of New York by 



176 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 




sitting in Philadelphia, adjourned to Baltimore. Many 
of the people of Philadelphia fled in terror b}- every 
road or by such boats as could be had. The army of 
Washington, thinly clad, was dwindling by sickness, and 
the time of enlistment of many of the men had al- 
most expired. It was necessary to strike a blow that 
would hearten the people, for the American cause was 
on the verge of ruin. 



THE BATTLE OF TRENTON: 



177 




The British government, finding that Englishmen The Hes 
were not eager to fight against those whom the}' es- 
teemed their countrymen in America, had hired a body 
of troops from one of the German princes. These sol- 
diers were called Hessians, because most of them came 
from that part of Germany known as Hesse-Cassel. Like 
all mercenary troops in Europe at that time, these Hes- 
sians were in the habit of plundering and oppressing 
any people that fell into their power, and their outrages 
on the inhabitants of New Jersey did much to turn 
wavering Americans to the side of the Revolution. 

About twelve hundred of these hireling troops were 
stationed in Trenton, New Jersey. On the night of 

Christmas, Washington 
crossed the Delaware in The capture nf 

. Trenton, 

open boats at a ponit 
above Trenton. It took 
all night to effect the 
crossing on account of 
ice in the river, and it 
was eight o'clock before 
the Americans reached 
Trenton. After a sharp battle of three quarters of an 
hour the Hessians surrendered, and Washington soon 
after prudently recrossed the Delaware. This success 
was a flash of light in the darkness, and the joy of 
the colonists knew no bounds. The prisoners were 
marched through the streets of Philadelphia, and 
one of the Hessian standards was hung up in the 
hall of Congress. 

Washington soon crossed the Delaware and re- 
occupied Trenton. Lord Cornwallis marched from 





TROOPER S BOOT. 



178 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



Battle of Pr 
ton 




Burgoyne 
pedition. 




GENERAL 8URG0VNE. 



Princeton with a strong force, and on the 2d of Janu- 
ary, 1777, attacked the Americans east of that town, 
and drove them back, fighting step by step. The Dela- 
ware was full of running ice, and if Washington had 
been beaten he could not have retreated. It was night 
by the time Cornwallis had driven the Americans into 
Trenton, and he waited for morning to strike a 
decisive blow that was to have annihilated the 
main army of the Revolution, and perhaps put an 
end to the war. But Washington resolved on a 
bold move. He threw up intrenchments in the 
face of the enemy as though to defend the place, 
but at midnight the fires were replenished and 
the American army slipped away. By marching 
around Cornwallis, Washington got in his rear, and 
attacked the troops remaining in Princeton, winning the 
battle before Cornwallis could come up. This success 
compelled the English to evacuate a large part of New 
Jersey, and put new life into the American cause. 

The battle of Princeton was fought on the 3d ot 
January, 1777. In this year a strong force of British 
and Hessians was dispatched to Canada, to de- 
scend from there by the old and often-traveled 
water-route through Lake Champlain and 
Lake George and the Hudson River. This 
army, under General Burgoyne, was ex- 
pected to reach Albany and to form a junction 
with the British troops about New York. The 
effect of this would have been to cut the 
colonies into two parts. 
Burgoyne compelled General St. Clair to 
evacuate Ticonderoga, and captured the artil- 




CAPTURE OF BURGOYNE'S ARMY. 



179 



lery and all the stores which St. Clair Fan of 

Ticonderoga. 

was trying to move. He then went 
to Skenesborough, now Whitehall, at 
the south end of Lake Champlain. 
At length he reached the Hudson at 
Fort Edward, having gained complete 
control of Lake Champlain and Lake 
George. 

But this was the end of Bur- Relief of Fort 

... Stanwix. 

goyne s successes. An expedition 
sent against Fort Stanwix, near the 
present village of Rome, in New 
York, was foiled in its purpose. The 
militia, led by General Herkimer, 
fought the severe battle ol Oriskany 
for the relief of the besieged fort. 
Herkimer, mortally wounded, sat by 
a tree to give orders and encourage 
his troops. With the aid of a sally 
from the fort the field was held. Arnold now marched 
to the relief of the fort, and he sent forward spies, 
who gave exaggerated accounts of the strength of 
his troops, and so frightened the British awa}'. 

From Fort Edward, Burgoyne sent out a force 
of his hired German troops into what is now 
Vermont, to capture stores and horses. But the 
militia of western New England, who, like almost 
all men in a new country, were accustomed to 
the use of fire-arms from childhood, gathered 
under the lead of General Stark, and at the battle 
of Bennington utterly defeated the detachment sent 
out by Burgoyne. 





i8o 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



Defeat and s 
render of Bu 
goyne. 




GENERAL GATES. 



The whole Northern country was up now. The 
ranks of the arm\' under General Gates, which opposed 
the march of Burgoyne, were quickl}' filled by militia 
pouring in from New York and New England. In a 
hard-fought battle at Bemis Heights the Americans 
won a decisive victory ; Burgoyne was soon hemmed 
in on every side by the increasing American force. 
He tried in vain to get back to the lakes. His 
retreat was cut off in every direction, and on the 
i6th of October he surrendered his whole army. 
This victory delivered the American cause from the 
greatest peril, and brought joy without measure to 
the people. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE DARK PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. 



Valley Fo 



The battle of The ovcrthrow of Bursfovne relieved the American 

the Brandywine, * - 

Sept. II, 1777. cause of one great danger, but it was sorely beset in 
other quarters. General Howe had taken his army 
around by sea, and 
landed at the head of 
Chesapeake Bay, in or- 
der to capture Philadel- 
k phia, which was then 

the seat of Congress. 
Washington's arm)- was 
inferior to the British, 
and he retired behind 







GENERAL SIR 




THE DARK PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. 



l8l 



the Brandywine River, where, on the iith of Septem- 
ber, 1777, was fought the battle of the Brandywine. 
The Americans were forced to retreat, and the British 
entered Philadelphia. 

On the 4th of October Washington attacked the Battle of Ger- 

T-» • • 1 r^ T-11 •! 1 1 1 • 1 c mantown, Oct. . 

British at (jermantown, near rhiladelphia, but, alter a ,7„. 
stubborn fight, he was again defeated. 

The winter of 1777-7^ was the darkest season of the winter-quarters 

r-, • TXT 1 • • • ^' Valley Forge 

Revolution. Washington went into winter-quarters at l^^^-^^i. 
Valley Forge. Many of the soldiers were 
without shoes, and in their marches 
over frozen ground they left blood in 
their tracks. Some of the poor fel- 
lows sat up by the fires at night, for 
want of blankets to keep them warm. 

The war of the colonies against Arrival of foreig 

officers 

England had excited much sympa- 
thy in Europe. Many foreign officers 
had come over to assist the Americans. 

Some of these were mere adventurers, but others were 

men of ability and generous spirit. Count Pulaski, Baron 

Steuben, and Baron De Kalb were excellent officers. 
But no other foreign officer rendered to the 

American cause services so important as those 

of the young Marquis de La Fayette, who was 

born of an illustrious French family on the 7th 

of September, 1757. He was but nineteen years 

old, with every prospect which great wealth 

and family influence could give, when he .j^^' 

embraced the cause of liberty in America. '/^p 

Against the command of the King of France, 

he freighted a ship with materials of war at his own 




BARON STEUBEN. 




l82 HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 

expense, and landed in America in 1777, to offer his 
services as a simple volunteer. He quickly won the 
favor of Congress and the life-long friendship of Wash- 
ington. He was made major-general, and, though so 
young, showed ability as a commander. His conduct 
was always prudent. He was wounded at the Brand}- 
wine, and he distinguished himself b}' a masterly re- 
treat from Barren Hill and fine conduct at the battle 
of Monmouth. In Virginia, when Cornwallis threat- 
ened him with a superior force, and boasted that the 
" little bo\'," as he called La Fa3"ettc, could not get 
away from him, the young marquis avoided a battle, 
and prepared by his skillful movements for the final 
success at Yorktown. La Fayette was all his life a 
lover of liberty and order. He took a brave part 
in the French Revolution, but rctused to go to 
extremes. He was arrested and imprisoned for 
years in Austria, in spite of American efforts to 
relieve him. At the instance of Bonaparte, he was 
freed in 1797. He visited the United States in 
1824, when he was welcomed as the guest of the 
nation. He made the tour of the country, rejoic- 
ing in its prosperity. He was everywhere received 
with enthusiasm bv those whose fathers he had 
helped in their hour of distress. Congress voted him 
$200,000 and a township of land for his losses and ex- 
penses in the Revolution. Though an old man, he took 
part in the French Revolution of 1S30, and remained the 
devoted friend of human libertv until his death in 1834. 
France had from the first taken a livelv interest in 
1778. the fate of America, partly from a jealous dislike of Eng- 

land, partly from the love of liberty that was growing 




W 



ith Fr 



THE DARK PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION: 



^H 




among the French people. The courageous persist- ^^\ 
ence with which Washington attacked Howe's army ^fe -j|pi(4 
at (jermantown made a strong unpression in ^^ 

France, and on the 30th of January, 1778, a treaty 
of alliance between France and the United States 
was signed. Intelligence of this treaty was re- 
ceived in America with the greatest joy. 

The first result of the alliance with France was ^'^ "^"""^ Clinton. 
the recovery of Philadelphia. Sir Henry Clinton, who 
had succeeded Howe in command of the British forces, British retreat 
was afraid that the French might blockade the Delaware, phia, and the 
and thus shut him up in Philadelphia. He theiefore mou\.\^, i^a^\i 
retreated across New Jersey to New York, pushed by '"*■ 
Washington's army. During this retreat the battle of 
Monmouth was fought. The x\mericans gained a partial 
victory, the English retreating under cover of night. 

One of the most brilliant enterprises of the war was capture of sto 
the capture of Stony Point, on the Hudson. General 
Anthony Wayne led a force of Americans, by defiles in 
the mountains, to within a mile and a half of the fort 
on the evening of July 15, 1779. To prevent discovery, 
all the dogs on the road were killed. At midnight the 
Americans moved on the fort. The advanced guard 
carried empty guns with fixed bayonets, and thus faced 
the fire of the defenders as they rushed over the works 
and made the British garrison prisoners. 

When the war had lasted three or four 3-ears, the The British co 
British government became convinced that it was a south Carolina 
most difficult task to subdue the Northern and Middle feMed'aTthe'^b; 
States. The people could not be subjugated even when "= °r camden, 
the armies were beaten. But as there were more slaves, 
and as the white population was more scattered, in the 



1 84 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Sergeant Jasper 




GENERAL MOULTRIE. 



Southern States, it was supposed that it might be 
easier to overrun them. At the close of the year 
1778 the British captured Savannah, and Georgia 
was soon subjugated. In the next year an attempt 
was made by the Americans, assisted by the French 
fleet, to capture Savannah, but it failed. In this 
attack Count Pulaski lost his life. After a 
regular siege, a British fleet and army took 
Charleston in May, 1780. General Gates, who had 
commanded the Northern department 
when Burgoyne surrendered, was put in 
command of all the American troops at 
the South. But Gates was utterly beat- 
en, and his whole force routed and 
dispersed, by the British under 
Cornwallis, at the battle of Camden, 
in South Carolina. There was no 
longer any American army worthy 
of the name in the whole South. 

The war in the South developed notable instances of 
heroic courage among the patriots. During the defense 
of Fort Sullivan, in Charleston harbor, in 1776, under 
General Moultrie, the fort bore a flag with a crescent 
n it. This was before the Americans had adopted 
a national flag, and a crescent probabh' signified the 
belief of the people that a new countr}- would grow 
stronger as time advanced. In the hottest of the fire 
this crescent flag was shot away. A sergeant named 
Jasper leaped down outside the fort and recovered 
the flag, which he fixed to a sponge-staff. This he 
stuck in the sand, and then returned unharmed to the 
fort. For this act the Governor of South Carolina gave 




THE DARK PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. 



185 



him his own sword. In 1779 he was engaged in the 
attack on Savannah, when the colors of his own regiment 
were shot awa}'. Jasper tried to replace them on a 
parapet, but he was mortally wounded. In this condi- 
tion he brought away his colors. 

In the South as in the North the British army found spirit of the 

people. 

it hard to gain permanent advantages. The Americans 
hesitated to enlist in the Continental army because, under 
the discipline customary at that time, the position of a 
private was a hard one. Flogging was a punishment 
thought necessary to good order in the American as 
well as in the English army, and one can readily conceive 
that men so high-spirited as the Americans of that day 
would not readily submit to such discipline. The soldiers 
were also poorly paid and badly fed. But, however often 
or severely the army might be beaten, the people at 
the South as at the North refused to be subdued, but 
whenever occasion offered rose against the invaders. 

Two South Carolina officers gained renown in the Marion and his 

men, 

irregular warfare which the patriots of that country car- 
ried on against the greatest odds. General Thomas 
Sumter for his resolute fighting got the name 
of " the game-cock," and General Francis Ma- 
rion was known as " the swamp-fox." In the 
darkest hour of the American cause in South 
Carolina, Marion, who had already distin- . , 

guished himself as an ofificer, formed "Ma- /^T ' f 
rion's Brigade." His men were armed with *i^i^ ^ T 




what they could get. Some carried rude 
sabers hammered out of old saws ; their bul- 
lets were often made by melting down pewter 
mugs and platters. They lived chiefly on hominy and 




GENERAL 6UMTER, 



1 86 



HISTORY OF THE UXJTED STATES. 




potatoes, and thc}- were capable of any amount of hard- 
ship, in which their commander set them a good exam- 
ple by sleeping on the ground, usually without a blanket. 
With this force Marion would move with incredible 
swiftness, striking now one weak point in the encm3''s 
defenses and then quickly falling on another far 
away. He knew every by-way; it was impossible 
to entrap this swamp-fox. When hard pressed by 
thc enemy, he would disband his force, leaving every 
man to extricate himself. Thc enemy would next 
discover his whereabouts by his falling suddenly in 
full f(jrce again on some remote post. He gave the 
\ ' British no peace ; they could not get men enough 
to hold the country. Yet, with all his boldness, 
Marion was famed for his sweet temper, his gentleness 
with his men, and his forbearance toward his foes. He re- 
strained his troops from plunder, he was always opposed 
to harsh measures against the Tories, and after the war he 
resisted the passage of acts to confiscate their property. 




CHAPTER XXXI. 

Till-; CLOSING YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION. 



It was in 1780, when thc affairs of thc Ameri- 
cans were at a very low point, that there occurred 
the treason of Benedict Arnold. Arnold was a 
brave soldier and a capable and even brilliant lead- 
er, but in all the affairs of life he had proved him- 
self lacking in the highest integrity. Arnold had led 



THE CLOSING YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION. 



187 



an unsuccessful expedition against 
Quebec, and his desperate courage 
had probably saved the day in 
the battle at Bemis Heights. 
He had been accused of pecu- 
lation in his accounts, and 
had been once sentenced to 
be publicly reprimanded b)' 
Washington. Arnold opened a 
correspondence with Sir Henry 
Clinton, the British general, 
and afterward got himself ap- 
pointed to the command of the 
posts in the Highlands of the Tre: 
Hudson in order to betray them ,780 
to the enemy. Major Andre, of 
the British army, was sent to ar- 
range with Arnold the surrender 
of his forts. On his way 
back to New York Andre 
was captured by three 
men, who refused all the 
rewards which he offered 
them, and delivered him 
and his papers to the 
nearest American officer. 
Andre was tried and 
hanged for a spy. Arnold had time to escape 
to the British army, in which he fought with great 
vindictiveness against the Americans. No name in 
American history is held so infamous as that of Bene- 
dict Arnold the traitor. 





POSTS IN THE 
UDSON AND THl 
= THAT RIVER. 




HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 





With the coming in 
of the year 17S1, Amer- 
ican prospects began to 
brighten. Greene had 
taken command of what 
was left of the ruined 
arm)- at the South, 
which he immediately 
recruited and improved by strict 
discipline. At the battle 
of the Cowpens, fought in 
South Carolina in January, 
1 78 1, a detachment under 
Morgan defeated a British force under 
Tarleton. Greene skillfully retreated for 
two hundred miles across North Caro- 
lina to the border of Virginia, followed 
by Cornwallis. When Cornwallis movnl 
to Hillsboro, Greene, re-enforced, again 
marched southward, but managed to 
avoid a conflict until he had gathered new troops. In 
the severe battle at Guilford Court-House, Cornwallis 
drove the Americans from the held at the close 
of a hard-fought struggle, but the 
victory was hardly better than 
a defeat, for his arm}- was so badlv 
shattered that he was forced to begin 
a prompt retreat to the sea-coast, 
leaving his wounded in the hands of 
the pursuing Americans. The scene 
of this battle is now called Greens- 
boro, in honor of General Greene. 




COLONEL TARLETON. 




THE CLOSING YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION. 



uers the most 
f the South. 




LORD CORNVyALLIS. 



Cornwallis, who was the ablest of all the English 
commanders in America, made a junction with the Brit- 
ish troops in Virginia, and Greene took advantage of this 
to reconquer South Carolina from the English. Though 
often checked and sometimes defeated, he had the 
satisfaction of recovering the three Southern States 
.^. ^ so far that the English held only the 

p:^^^^^~, three chief seaports — Savannah, 

■', ; •'-• Charleston, and Wilmington. 

sjj^, ■*^gg Reaching Virginia, Corn- 

■ ''^^..^ J' wallis pushed the work of fight 
j '^^''^" """!',, ;,j^'^ ing and destruction with his usual 

^ - vigor. La Fayette, who was in Battle of y. 

ROYAL FLAG OF FRANCE. 1 r ^1 A • 1 1 town and S 

command of the Americans, showed derofcom^ 
much ability in avoiding a battle. Washington now °'"' ''' "^' 
marched his forces to the southward, in company with 
a French army under Rochambeau. The French fleet 
blockaded the troops of Cornwallis at Yorktown 
and the American and French armies, co-operat- 
ing in the friendliest way, laid siege to the place. 
On the 19th of October, 1781, the British army 
under Cornwallis surrendered, prisoners of war. 
The English people had grown weary of the 
conflict The surrender of Cornwallis took away 
from them the last hope of subduing America. hol-ambeau 
From this time it was certain that American in- 
dependence would be granted by England. Terms of Preiimin 

' o y o peace, 17; 

peace were at length agreed on at Paris in 1782, and a 





AMERICAN ARTILLERY CHAWN ETl' OXEK. 



igo 




HISTORY OF THE U XI TED STATES. 



Washingto 
tires to pri 
life, 1783. 



treaty was signed the following year 
By this peace England recognized 
the independence of the United 
States. Among those who negotiated 
the peace was the venerable Dr. 
Franklin. 

Washington, who was the idol of 
the people, resigned his command of 
the army in 1783, bidding farewell 
to his troops, and returning to private life at Mount Ver- 
non, like a good citizen. His patience, wisdom, coolness, 
and unselfish patriotism had procured the successful end 
of the long struggle. 





ESEK HOPKINS, 
FIRST COMMANDER i 
THE AMERICAN NAV 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

TRAITS AND INCIDENTS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 

At the outbreak of the Revolution the American 

colonies had no navy, and it was quite impossible for 

them to form one that could contend with that of 

England, which was the best in the world. But the 

Americans of that time were a " web-footed people," 

that is, a sea-coast people, who did nearlv ail their trad- 



INCWEXTS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 



191 



ing and traveling by water. They quickly fitted up some 
ships, that did good execution. At the outbreak of the 
war the American army lacked powder, arms, and cloth- 
ing. While powder -factories were building, daring 
American seamen, North and South, put to sea and capt- 
ured supplies of powder from British ships. In 1776 
ten thousand suits of winter uniform, on their way to 
Burgoyne's army, were taken at sea. These were sent 
to clothe the destitute American soldiers. 

But the little navy rendered other and more impor- 
tant services. Captain Nicholas Biddle gained much re- 
nown by his brilliant successes in a small ship. John 
Paul Jones, a Scotchman, had en- 
tered the American navy, and 
he soon proved himself one of 
the best seamen and one of 
the most unconquerable fight- 
ers that ever sailed the ocean. 
He scoured the English and 
Irish coasts, a terror to sea and 
land. In the Bonhomme Rich- 
ard he encountered the English 
JOHN PAUL JONES. man-of-war Serapis, and, finding- 

no other chance for victory, he ran alongside the eneni}- 
and lashed the two ships together. After a bloody 
battle, enduring two hours, the English ship surren- 
dered. But the Bonhomme Richard was so badly cut 
to pieces that Jones was forced to transfer his crew to 
the Serapis, leaving his own ship to sink. 

A great deal of destruction was done to English 
commerce by privateers — vessels of war fitted out by 
private individuals. The profits made, even by com- 



Early 
ments 
Ameri( 



of the 
:ans at i 





Capta 


n Biddle's 


succes 


s. Paul 


[ones 


and the 


battle 


of the 


Bonhc 


mme Rich 




192 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



Arms of the 
Americans a 



fighting. 




REVOLUTIONARY 

POWOER-MORN AND 

CANTEEN. 





REVOLUTIONARY 
BLOCK-HOUSE 
THE NEW YORK 
FRONTIER. 



ernment during 
the Revolution 



mon seamen, from prizes taken in this kind of war, 
drew many men into it, and prevented enlistments in 
the army. 

The farmer-militia usually wore brown 
tow-shirts and carried long fowling-pieces. 
Their ammunition was carried in a pow- 
der-horn and shot -bag. They were 
sometimes barefoot, after the fashion of 
many country people of that time. Bay- 
onets were often lacking. At the battle 
of Saratoga one of the divisions of the 
Americans had but one bayonet to every three men. 
It is said that they put one bullet and two buck-shot 
in a gun together. There were many men 
among the Americans whose aim was very 
deadly. The riflemen from the frontier 
were capable of incredible accuracy in 
shooting. Double-barreled guns were al- 
most, though not quite, unknown at that 
time. The percussion-cap had not yet 
been invented, but the old firelocks, set 
off by a burning fuse, had all disappeared. 
The small arms were probably all flint- 
locks — guns and pistols that were set off 
by a flint striking a piece of steel. There 
were no breech-loaders and no revolvers. 
Firing was much slower and less effective 
J^"J^ than now. The bayonet was more important then than 
GERMAN jj.j recent warfare. 

E TIME. 

The American troops suffered extreme hardships, 
ov- The paper money Issued by Congress to pay the soldiers 
declined in value until it was almost worthless. In more 




INCIDENTS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 



193 




than one campaign the barefoot soldiers left blood on the 
ground when they marched. To relieve the necessities 
of the soldiers, patriotic women collected blankets and 
sent them to the army. 

When the Revolution broke out there were 
nearly three millions of people in the American 
colonies. During the war the population increased, 
and, notwithstanding the interruptions of business and 
the destruction of property, the wealth also increased. 
The loss of credit and the inefficiency and suffering 
of the army were principally due to the weakness of 
the government. There were, indeed, thirteen govern- 
ments, bound together very loosely. Congress had no 
way of making each State pa}' its proportion of the 
expense of the war, and so one State waited 
for another. It was not until some 
^^ years after the peace that a strong 
government was formed. 
One of the most notable exploits of conquest of the 

' niinois country 

the war was the bold march of General by ciark. 
George Rogers Clark, at the head of a 
little band of frontiersmen, to the dis- ^ 
tant posts in Illinois on the Missis- 
sippi River. These he captured by 
courage, skill, and craft, and he also ^J' 
took and held Vincennes in Indiana. "=^^1 
The seizing and securing of these remote posts for the israel 
United States- were of the highest importance. At the the re 
peace with England our possession of these places gave 
the United States the territory north of the Ohio, and 
perhaps changed the destiu}- of the country. 





jn^ HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTIOX. 
State constitu- \j j^g beginning of the Revolution the different 

tions adopted. . 

colonies were governed, in one way or another, by 
authority derived from England, as we have seen in an- 
other chapter. After they went to war with England 
for their rights, they still carried on government under 
English charters as English colonies. New Hampshire 
was the first to change. In December, 1775, more than 
half a year before independence of England was declared, 
this colony set up a State government for itself. In the 
May following. Congress advised the several colonies to 
form State governments. The people in the different 
colonies had been accustomed to different ways of trans- 
acting their public business. They mostly made their 
new governments on the plan of the old, only leaving 
out of the account the authority of the king. 
Origin of the xhc thirteen colonies, though lying so close to- 

States. . . 

gether, had been used to acting in almost entire in- 
dependence of one another, and even in the distresses 
of the Revolutionary War they jealously held them- 
selves apart, and kept up a kind of separateness of gov- 
ernment and interest. It never occurred to them to do 
away with dividing-lines and make themselves into one 
state. We owe our present federal S3-stem of govern- 
ment to this local feeling, which had been produced by 
colonial conditions. For a large country like ours the 
division into States is a fortunate arrangement, and a 
source of strength to the government ; but it was not 



THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



195 



brought about by anybody's wisdom, but by the course 
of events. 

When the States had chansred to independent forms of states inde- 

'^ ^ _ pendent of 

government, they still regarded themselves as independ- one another, 
ent of one another. Congress was only a meeting of the 
representatives of States allied to one another. The feel- 
ing of union and nationality had not had time to grow. 
All taxes were levied by the States, and the authority of 
Congress was very weak. Much of the suffering of the 
armies during the Reyolution grew out of the inability of 
Congress to levy a tax without the assent of the several 
States, or to raise troops by direct authority. The best 
endeavors of Washington and his men were thwarted by 
this lack of cohesion among the States. 

But these thirteen States, fighting against the same confederation 
enemy and under the same officers, and suffering the 
same sorrows, came by degrees to feel themselves a 
country. They found it necessary to bind themselves 
together and to give more power to Congress. So, in 
November, 1777, when the war had been going on two 
years and a half. Congress adopted a plan for a perma- 
nent confederation of the States. This was a very short 
step toward a national government, for in this plan the 
States were treated as sovereign nations agreeing to form 
themselves into a perpetual confederation. Each State 
had but one vote in Congress, however many representa- 
tives it might send, so that the largest State in the Con- 
federation counted for no more than the very smallest. 
Only the States were recognized ; the people, many or 
few, were not counted. And the several States were so 
jealous of their independence that it was more than three 
years after' this plan had passed Congress before all the 



196 



HISTORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 



States could be persuaded to agree to it. The Confed- 
eration was completed in 1781. It was a wretchedly 
weak government, which very soon fell into contempt 
at home and abroad. 
Meeting of the By(- ^\^\^ wcalv government continued for several 

Constitutional ° 

Convention. vcars after the close of the Revolution, until it became 
evident that its feebleness would bring the country to 
ruin. In 1787 a convention met in Philadelphia to form 
a constitution better suited to give strength to the nation. 
George Washington, who had retired to private life 
when the war was over, was chosen president of this 
convention. It was a hard task to persuade the con- 
vention to agree to lay aside State jealousies and form 
a strong central government. The best patriots of the 
day looked with extreme anxiety for the decisions of 
the convention, for its deliberations were in secret. 

Two or three delegates were so dissatisfied that they 
withdrew, and it was feared that others would leave, 
and that the convention would break up without result. 
The wisest men trembled with apprehension. The aged 
Franklin, greatly reverenced by all, rose in the conven- 
tion one day and expressed his despair by proposing that 
henceforth the sessions should be opened with prayer. 
He said there was now no hope except from Heaven, 
the wit of man having been exhausted. But the proba- 
bility that a failure of the convention to agree on some 
plan would throw the country into convulsions, and per- 
haps into civil war, brought the delegates at length to 
reconcile their differences, and to unanimously recom- 
mend the Constitution as it was finally adopted. When 
at last the delegates were signing their names, the ven- 
erable Franklin said tliat he had frequently asked iiim- 



The Constitu- 



THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. jgy 

self, in the course of the debates, whether the sun pict- 
ured behind the chair occupied by Washington as presi- 
dent of the convention were a rising or a setting sun, 
but that he now knew that it was rising. 

But the battle for the Constitution was by no means The constitu- 

1 1 ■ • !• 1 T-i r I 1-1 ''°" adopted. 

over when the convention adjourned. 1 he hght which 
the people had made for the freedom of their local gov- 
ernments from English tyranny had made them jealous 
of any superior government. There were people who 
saw in the office of president, provided for in the new 
Constitution, something kingly, and who feared that the 
new Congress would prove as tyrannical as the British 
Parliament had been. It was arranged that the Consti- 
tution should not go into force in any part of the coun- 
try until nine of the States had accepted it. The fight 
in many States was a bitter one, and it was not until 
June, 1788, that the ninth State adopted it. Then there 
was great joy in the minds of those who knew how im- 
portant a firm national union was. Rhode Island was 
the last of the thirteen States to accept the Constitution 
and come into the Union. This she did in 1790. 

The Constitution as then adopted is, with a few Three depart- 
amendments, the one we live under now. It is there- Federal gov- 
fore important that we Americans should understand ^'■■""="'- 
its main features. Under the old Confederation, the exe- 
cution of the acts of Congress was intrusted chiefly to 
committees of its own members. But the new Consti- 
tution made an almost complete separation of the gov- 
ernment into three parts, each of which is confined to 
its own duties. 

First, the legislative, or law-making, department is The legislative 

111' 1 r^ • • 1 ^'-^ 1) T • 1 1 department. 

called in the Constitution " the Congress. It includes 



igS 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The judicial 
department. 



The Constitu- 
tion a result 
of experience. 



two bodies — a House of Representatives, chosen by the 
people, and a Senate, chosen by the Legislatures of the 
several States. In the House of Representatives each 
State is allowed a greater or less number of members, 
according to its population. In the Senate each State, 
large or small, has two members. A bill must get a 
majority of votes in both the House of Representatives 
and the Senate in order to become a law. It must also 
be approved by the President. But, if the President 
refuses to sign it, then two thirds of both the Senate 
and the House may pass it, and it becomes a law in 
spite of the President's veto. 

Second, the executive department, which consists of 
the President (and those appointed under him). The 
President is chosen for four years. He is commander- 
in-chief of the army and navy. He appoints all the 
chief executive officers, with the consent of the Senate. 
In case of the death of the President, the Vice-Presi- 
dent takes his place. 

Third, the judicial department consists of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States and such lower 
courts as Congress may establish. The President ap- 
points the judges of the United States courts, with the 
advice and consent of the Senate. 

This Constitution shows wisdom in the men who 
made it, but true wisdom always learns from history. 
Those who adopted the Constitution did not originate 
its provisions; they were the outgrowth of the history 
of the country. We have seen in Chapter VI that the 
Great Charter given to the struggling little colony of 
Virginia in 1618 provided in an imperfect way a repre- 
sentative government, with two divisions in the Assem- 



THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 



199 



bly somewhat like our two houses of Congress. The 
other colonies were formed on this model, with some 
variations ; and all through the colonial time, in all the 
struggles of the colonies for their liberties, this plan of 
government was in course of development. In the Fed- 
eral Government, the President has the power to veto 
a bill passed by Congress, just as the colonial governor 
could veto bills passed by the Legislatures. In most of 
the colonial governments the Upper House, or Council, 
was appointed by the king or the governor. Our na- 
tional Senate is chosen by the several States. This is a 
relic of the old semi-sovereign character of the States 
under the Confederation. So that the Constitution is a 
growth, and is only to be understood by studying the 
history of the people of the United States. 

Though the system of intrusting a great deal of our The division of 

, . power between 

law-making to the several States grew out of the ongi- the several states 
nal colonial condition of the American people, yet it states.' 
has proved to be a great advantage of our plan of gov- 
ernment that law-making for the regulation of morals 
and the ordinary business of life is left to the States, 
so that the people of each region can have laws suited 
to their necessities. It is also a great source of strength 
that the general concerns of the whole country — the • 
money, the foreign commerce, treaties with foreign na- 
tions, and affairs of war and peace — are settled by the 
central government of the whole United States. 

Before the Revolution, the Episcopal Church of Eng- Freedom of re- 
ligion, of the 
land was established in the Southern colonies, while the press, and of 

Congregational churches were supported by law in all 

the New England colonies except Rhode Island. During 

the Revolution, Thomas Jefferson led a movement in 



200 HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 

favor of religious freedom. Now there is no religious 
establishment in any part of the country, but all are free 
to worship in their own way. The Constitution provides 
that Congress shall not interfere with religious freedom, 
or with the freedom of speech or the freedom of the 
press. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE NEW REPUBLIC AND ITS PEOPLE. 
Washington When the Constitution was adopted, a new nation 

elected first * 

President. was foHiied out of thirteen States, which before that time 
had been almost independent of one another. The old 
Confederation had no executive head, but by the pro- 
visions of the new Constitution there was now to be 
chosen a President of this new nation, and the whole 
country turned its eyes to one man. General Washing- 
ton, who had been for five years living quietly on his 
plantation at Mount \'ernon, was the onl}- person thought 
of for President, and he was elected without a rival. 
John Adams was chosen Vice-President. 

Washington's ^g thcrc wcrc uo railroads, Washinsjton was obliged 

journey to . 

New York. to travcl in his carnage from Mount Vernon, on the 
Potomac, to New York, the temporary capital. Every- 
where he was detained by the applause of the people, 
who now looked to his wisdom to complete the work 
of consolidating thirteen separate States into one na- 
tion. Troops of horsemen escorted Washington from 
place to place, and every town welcomed him. His 
passage through Philadelphia was a sort of triumph. 



^**5^*& ,,^y^^1J^.fe^ 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
FHOM A PAINTING BY GILBERT STUART. 



202 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Washington's 
reception in 
New York. 



beginning of 
Washington 
administratis 



When he reached the bridge over which he had led his 
victorious little army out of Trenton to fight the battle 
of Princeton, he found a triumphal arch erected by the 
women of Trenton. It was supported by thirteen pil- 
lars, and had a large dome, with a sunflower and the 
significant inscription, " To thee alone." Another in- 
scription read, " The Defender of the Mothers will be 
the Protector of the Daughters." As Washington passed 
beneath this arch, girls dressed in white sang an ode of 
welcome, and strewed flowers before the newly chosen 
President. 

From Elizabethtown Point, in New Jersey, he was 
brought to New York in a handsome barge built for the 
purpose, and manned by thirteen master-pilots dressed in 
white. Six other barges, with oarsmen in white, escorted 
him. When he landed on a carpeted stairs at the wharf, 
he was received by the governor and the whole city with 
every possible honor. On the 30th of April, 1789, just 
where his statue now stands in Wall 
Street, the first of the presidents took 
a solemn oath to support the Consti- 
tution of the infant country. 

The country, when Washington 
became President, contained less than 
four millions of people. The single 
State of New York has a larger 
population than the whole country 
had in Washington's time, and Penn- 
sylvania also has more, while Ohio and Illinois have each 
nearly as many. The census of 1890, when it comes to 
be added up, will doubtless show that in one hundred 
years the population has increased to more than seventy 



The 


smaller square 


represe 


ntsthe population 




of the 


United States in 1790, | 




3,929,214. 


The 


larger square 


represe 


ntsthe population 




of 


Nev 


V York in 1880, 




5,082,871. 



THE NEW REPUBLIC AND ITS PEOPLE. 



203 



millions, or to at least eighteen times as many as there 

were when the first census was taken in 1790. 

The three or four millions of people in America, when Population most- 
ly along the sca- 
the Constitution made the States one nation, were settled coast. 

chiefly along the Atlantic coast. The center of popula- 




tion 
was east 
of Balti- 
more, on the 
eastern shore 
of the Chesa- 



peake Bay. This shows how closely the inhabitants 
clung to the sea, which was almost the only great high- 



204 HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 

waj- of their commerce, for, lacking railways and even 
good roads, they could carry on little traffic except by 
sea or along navigable streams. The traveler who made 
his way up into the country, found the population becom- 
ing more sparse, and the houses generallj- mere cabins. 
By the time one reached the AUeghanv Mountains, there 
was an end of settlements. All to the west of the mount- 
ains was a wilderness, filled with hostile savages and 
wild beasts, e.xcept the little pioneer settlements in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. The western line of the territory 
of the United States was the Mississippi River, but the 
unbroken forests and prairies of that region were about 
as hard to reach as the interior of Alaska is to-day. 
Modes of travel: The pcoplc of the first ycars of the republic had never 

sailing-vessels 

and stage- dreamed of either railroad or steamboat. One of the 



ches. 



commonest modes of travel from one town to another 
was by sailing-packets. When one set out, it was impos- 
sible to foretell the length of the voyage ; all depended 
on wind and weather. It usually took several days to 
sail by sloop from Albany to New York, and passengers, 
having provided themselves with patience and plenty of 
fishing-tackle, thought the lazy journey delightful. Rude 
stage-wagons were run between the larger towns. It 
took six da3"s to make the journey from Boston to New 
York, and two or three to get from New York to Phila- 
delphia. A journey required as many da)-s then as it 
does hours now. 
Travel by private Many traveled in their own coaches or in light two- 

vehicles. _ 

wheeled vehicles. The ferries were a terror to these. 
Large rivers were usually crossed in rude scows, and not 
without danger, but at some places it was necessary to 
swim the horses over and float the carriage at the stern 



THE XEW REPUBLIC AXD ITS PEOPLE. 



205 



of a canoe. Sometimes two canoes. were put side by side 
and lashed together, so that a horse might stand with 
fore-feet in one and hind-feet in the other, to be ferried 
over a river. 

Probably the most comfortable of all modes of travel ho"- 

elini 

at the time was that of riding on horseback. In America 
there were everywhere horses that ambled naturally. 
The " natural pacer," of Virginia, and the " Narragansett 
pacer,"' of Rhode Island, were highl}- prized, and were 
matters of wonder even in Europe. Two people often- 
journeAcd with but one horse. The first rode ahead 
and tied the horse by the road ; the second, when he 
came up, rode on past his companion and in turn tied 
the horse and left him for the other. This was called 

" travelins: ride and tie." 




-^ ^~ 



When Washington became President, all the chief Badness of the 

roads generally. 

towns were on the sea-coast, or on the tide-water of the The great wagon 

T • T-> 1 ■ /^ • 1 f traffic in Penn- 

nvers, except Lancaster, m Pennsylvania. Uutside 01 syivania. 
that State, the roads were so bad that a large trading- 
town was not possible away from water conveyance. 
The interior trade of Pennsylvania was carried on in 
great wagons, known as Conestoga wagons, each drawn 



2o6 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Carrying the 
mails. 



by six or eight stout horses. There were ten thousand 
or more of these wagons running out of Philadelphia. 
The wagon-trade with the interior made Philadelphia 
the chief town of North America. Trade with remote 
districts of the country was still carried on by means 
of pack-horses and bateaux, or small boats. Men who 
pushed bateaux with poles, or followed the wandering 
lives of pack-horsemen in the woods, or wagoners from 
town to town, were naturally rough and boisterous in 
manners and without much education. There was not 
much letter-writing then, and the mails were carried 
mostly on horseback, with little regularity and no speed, 
so that news sent by mail almost became history by 
the time it reached the reader. The newspapers were 
published weekly, and were slow with their 
news and rather dull in their comments. 
^ ^ There were schools in all the 

leading towns and cities. In New 
England there were schools in al- 
most every township. But there 
was no public-school S3-stem like 
that which prevails at present. 
The schools were, for the most 
part, poor ; the discipline in them 
was severe, and sometimes brutal. Boys were taught to 
read and write, and sometimes to " cast accounts." Girls 
learned to read, sometimes also to write. But needle- 
work and fancy-work were thought more appropriate to 
their sex. The oldest college in the country was Har- 
vard, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was founded 
in 1638. The next oldest was the college of William and 




THE XEIV REPUBLIC AND ITS PEOPLE. 



207 



Mary, at Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, which 
was chartered in 1693, in the reign of William and Mary, 
and which at the beginning of the Revolution was the 
richest college in the colonies. Yale College, in New 
Haven, founded in 1700, was the third in age. There 
was also a college in New York, one in Philadelphia, 
and another in Princeton, New Jersey. But we are not 
to think of any of these colleges as great institutions. 
They were, rather, little more than academies in the 
number of their students and in their provisions for the 
education of pupils. 

For a long time after the colonies were settled there science, 1 
had been little that one could call literature or art or 
science. People busy in cutting down forests and build- 
ing new towns have no time to write books or paint 
pictures. The early books were almost all on politics 
or religion. But in the fifty years before the Revolu- 
tion there came to be a considerable interest in science 
and literature. In the period following the Revolution, 
nearl}- all the great minds were interested in politics, 
and the lighter forms of literature were not cultivated 
with much success, but the writings of Madison, Ham- 
ilton, and others, on questions of state, give luster to 
their age. 

Almost at the beginning of Washington's administra- Franklin. 
tion there died the aged Benjamin Franklin, first of 
Americans to achieve a world-wide and enduring fame, 
and one of the very greatest men of his century. Frank- 
lin was the son of a tallow-chandler, and was boro in 
Boston in 1706. He learned the printer's trade in his 
brother's ofifice, and also did some rude engraving for 
the paper. Though working hard in the daytime, he 



2o8 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Franklin 
lie life. 



read diligently at night, 
and made remarkable 
advancement in knowl- 
edge. At seventeen, he 
went to Philadelphia, 
entering the city poor, 
ind munching a roll as 
he walked along the 
streets of the town of 
which he was to become 
the most famous citizen. 
After many vicissitudes 
he rose to the owner- 
ship of a printing-office. 
He published an almanac, known as " Poor Richard's," 
which became famous for its wise proverbs, and he 
printed and edited the best newspaper in the American 
colonies. Franklin was postmaster-general for 
the colonies. He became a careful student of 
the new science of electricity, and in 1752, by 
means of a kite, he proved that the lightning 
of the clouds was electricity. This discov- 
er}-, and the invention of the lightning-rod, 
made him famous in Europe. He pro- 
moted the formation of libraries and other 
literar}- institutions, and furthered the pub- 
lic welfare in many ways. He went to 
London more than once as agent for his 
in pub- own and other colonies, and was chiefly influential in 
securing the repeal of the Stamp Act. He was in 
London as agent for several of the colonies when the 
Revolution broke out, but he immediatelv returned to 




HOME AXD SOCIETY IN WASHINGTON'S TIME. 



209 



America. He was one of the committee to draft the 
Declaration of Independence, and he went to France in 
1776 as ambassador. In France he was treated with 
something like idolatry by all classes of people, from the 
king downward. It was his skillful hand that negoti- 
ated the treaty with that country, without which the 
Revolution could hardly have succeeded. He assisted 
in making the treaty of peace with England in 1782, 
and took part in framing the Constitution of the United 
States in 1787. He died in Philadelphia in 1790, aged 
eighty-four years. It was said of him that " he wrested 
the thunder from the sky and the scepter from tyrants." 
Franklin was a great journalist, author, statesman, pa- 
triot, scientist, and philosopher. Few men have ever 
gained distinction of so man}^ sorts. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

HOME AXD SOCIETY IX WASHIXGTOX'S TIME. 

Not only did the people of the United States, in the Lack of modem 
time of President Washington, have no railroads and no 
steamboats, but they lacked a great number of other con- 
veniences. Telegraphs and telephones were unknown. 
Electric lights are an invention of our own time, but our 
ancestors did not even have gas or kerosene-oil. Lamps 
of any kind were almost unknown ; houses were lighted 
with tallow-candles, though some of the people made 
candles of a green wax derived from the berries of the 
wax-myrtle tree. The poorest people burned a wick in 



conveniences 



HISTORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 



Life ai 

farmer 




WOOL-WHEEL- 



Habits of the 
backer oodsmeo. 



Negro slaves. 



a vessel containing a little grease, or lighted pieces of 
pitch-pine on the hearth. With such lights, it was no 
great virtue that they went to bed early. Even the 
streets of large towns were lighted with dim lanterns. 
Stoves for heating were almost unknown ; those for 
cooking were not yet dreamed of. Wood was the only 
fuel used in houses. Blacksmiths burned charcoal. 

There were few mines and very few manufactures. 
Wool or flax was prepared and spun at home, and then 
woven into plain homespun cloths for men's and 
women's wear. The greater part of the people 
were farmers, and the farmer rarely spent money. 
What his family ate and wore was produced at 
home. The rough shoes worn in winter were, 
perhaps, bought of a neighboring cobbler, but 
^=~-- they were sometimes made at home. The 
children, and, in many cases, the parents them- 
selves, went barefoot in summer. Plows, wagons, 
and sleds were mostly made on the farm. In 
manv parts of the country the plow was unknown, 
and the pack-horse or rude sledge took the place of the 
wagon. The farming was generally of the roughest 
kind, but the land was new and fertile. 

There were many backwoodsmen who had a dress of 
their own. They wore loose hunting-shirts of deer-skin 
or homespun, a fur cap, moccasins, and buckskin leggins. 
These woodsmen lived by hunting, by trapping, by poling 
boats and driving pack-horses, bv small Indian trading, and 
sometimes by pettv farming. Until after the Revolution, 
mechanics and workingmen wore leathern breeches. 

Of the nearlv four millions of people in the United 
States in 1790. about one seventh were negro slaves. 



I/OME AXD SOCIETY IX irASfflXGTOX'S TIME. 



Slavery had existed in Massachusetts from an earlv 
period, but it had been declared illegal bv the courts of 
that State about the time of the Revolution. In every 
other State there were slaves. But thev were compara- 
tively few in the Northern States, which had no agricult- 
ure in which slave-labor was profitable. Of the North- 
em States, New York had the most slaves — more than 
twenty thousand. Nearly seven eighths of all the slaves 
were in Maryland, Virginia, and the two Carolinas. 
These were the lands of tobacco, indigo, and rice culture. 

In parts of these States countrv life preserved aris- 
tocratic forms derived from England. Here, until after 
the Revolution, the oldest son of the family inherited the 
land, according to the custom of the old English law. 
Some of the great planters lived like nobles. Thev 
were accustomed to manage public affairs, and from 
this class came some of the most eminent statesmen 
of the period following the Revolution. Virginia 
was called " the Mother of Presidents." because so 
many of the early presidents were bom in that 
State. But the poorer people at the South had 
little or no chance for education, and were gen- * 
erally rude and illiterate. There were few towns 
in the Southern States, verv few mechanics, and little 
of the shi{>-building and manufactures that were soon to 
make New England rich. But in Washington's time the 
Southern States were the richest as well as the most 
populous. If thev had but little town life, there was 
much social gayety in the plantation-houses. 

The so-called cities of the United States, at the time 
of the adoption of the Constitution, were only what 
would now be counted towns of moderate size. But 



Traits of life at 
the South. 




Society 
cities. 



NI STORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 




Costume i 
Washingt 



in each of these little capitals there was an upper class 
which affected the style and fashion of the English 
gentry. Gentlemen and ladies gathered at fashionable 
houses in the afternoon, and spent the time in talking, 
and sipping tea from dainty little china cups. Some- 
times large parties rode out to a public garden in the 
country, or a tavern by the sea-side, to drink tea. In 
most of the chief towns there were held once in two 
weeks "assemblies," or balls. At these assemblies there 
were stately minuets and country-dances, and much 
money was lost and won at card-tables in a room pre- 
pared for fashionable gambling, which was then one of 
the recognized amusements of good society. 

About the time of the Revolution gentlemen wore 
their hair long, and powdered it white. Ladies dressed 
their hair in a lofty tower. One fine lady of the time 
paid six hundred dollars a year to her hair-dresser. 
Gentlemen, as well as ladies, wore bright colors and a 
variet}' of rich fabrics, so that a fashionable assembly pre- 
sented a gay appearance. " Short-clothes," or breeches 
coming to the knee only, were still fashionable ; only 
very plain men wore long trousers, and even these were 
obliged to put on short-clothes if they wished to attend 
a concert or ball. 

But, with all this gayety in the upper ranks of so- 
ciety, life was less comfortable then than now. The 
Comparative dis- common peoplc Hvcd hardlv, with few comforts and 
life of the time, fewcr luxurics. Evcu the rich, with all their loaded 
tables and fine show, lacked some of the substantial 
comforts of our modern life. There was more drinking 
to excess then, and there was less refinement in speech 
and manners, than there is now. 




HEAO-ORESS 



WASHINGTON'S PRESIDENCY. 213 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

WASHINGTON'S PRESIDENCY, FROM 1 789 TO 1 797. 

Before the Revolution, officers of state affected a Aristocratic 

usages in the 

great deal of dignity, and public life was attended with colonies. 
much ceremony, borrowed from the customs which pre- 
vailed in England. Much of that division of society into 
classes which prevails in England had passed over to 
this countr)'. Students in Harvard College, for example, 
were placed in a certain order in the catalogue accord- 
ing to the supposed rank of their fathers, and a student 
was required to yield the baluster side of the stairs to 
his social superior, though he might be the veriest dunce 
in the school. 

But the American Revolution had two sides to it. Democratic 

1 ■ ■ T- 1 1 feeling in the 

Apparently it was only a resistance to English oppres- Revolution, 
sion. But, in resisting oppression, the claim was set up 
that the poor man's rights were as sacred as the rich 
man's, and from this came the assertion that, in matters 
of right, all men ought to be free and equal. This led 
the Legislature of Virginia to modify its laws regarding 
negroes and Indians, and the courts in Massachusetts to 
declare slavery illegal. A few years before the Revo- 
lution the social distinctions in Harvard College were 
abandoned ; and the thought of the equal rights of men • 
which runs through the Declaration of Independence 
spread easily among the people in a new country such 
as the United States was at this time, for most of the 
people were plain, hard-working folk, leading independ- 
ent lives, and resenting the arrogance of the great. 



214 



HISTORY aF THE UNITED STATES. 




MARTHA WASHINGTON. 



Vashington 
partisan. 



Anti-Federalists 



But when the Constitution was adopted, and a new 
government was to take a place in the family of nations 
alongside the great kingdoms of Europe, it became a 
question of how much of the old English pomp and 
ceremony there should be about it. Most of the men 
in public life were used to the old colonial titles, 
and the United States Senate wished to address 
Washington as " His Highness the President of the 
United States and Protector of their Liberties." 
But the people generally, filled with ideas of the 
equality of men, disliked such pompous titles, and so 
it was thought enough to call him " The President of 
the United States." But so fixed were the old no- 
tions that fashionable people could not bring themselves 
to speak of the wife of their President as Mrs. Washing- 
ton ; it became customary to call her " Lady Washington." 
The capital of the country, which was at first in New 
York, was removed to Philadelphia in 1791, to remain 
there until it should be fixed permanently on the Potomac 
River. Washington was re-elected in 1792 without op- 
position. He kept himself aloof from political parties, 
and tried to be impartial. But his pi'eference for a 
strong central government attached him rather to the 
party called Federalist than to its opponents. 

In the fierce struggle that led to the adoption of the 
Constitution, those who favored the federal system of 
government took the name of Federalists ; those who 
opposed the adoption of the new Constitution were 
known as anti-Federalists. Some of these opponents were 
great patriots like Patrick Henry. Samuel Adams was 
also for a time in opposition. We must remember that, 
until the Constitution was actually tried, there was room 



WASHINGTON'S PRESIDENCY. 



215 



for doubt as to how it would work, and, as the colonies 
had suffered from the King and the Parliament of Eng- 
land, the States were naturally afraid that a President 
and a national Congress might prove as bad. 

After the Constitution was adopted, there were still The Federalist 
many questions to be settled. The Federalists were in 
favor of construing the Constitution so as to strengthen 
the central government. They also liked to see the 
government conducted with pomp and ceremon}'. The 
Federalist party was strong in the cities, and among 
people of wealth and those devoted to commerce. Such 
people in that day were generally aristocratic in their 
feelings, and leaned to English wa3-s. In the war be- 
tween England and France, the sympathies of the Fed- 
eralists were in favor of England and against France. 

When once the battle over the Constitution was The Republican 
ended, opposition to it also ended, and there were no 
more anti-Federalists. But those who had opposed the 
federal s)'stem, and some who had favored it, set them- 
selves to interpret the Constitution in such a way as to 
limit as much as possible the authority of the Federal 
Government. This party was called the Republican, 
and sometimes the Democratic Republican party ; but 
it is not to be confounded with the Republican party 
of later times. The members of this party were afraid 
that the United States Government would grow too 
strong, and perhaps overthrow the liberties of the peo- 
ple. They wished to increase the power of the States 
and diminish that of the United States. They cherished 
ideas of individual liberty and equality, and were afraid of 
an aristocracy. The old Republican or Democratic party 
of that day sympathized with France, which had, in the 



2l6 



Jl J STORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



great Revolution of 1789, overthrown the monarchy and 
set up a republic, and the Republicans disliked England. 
Many of them at one time showed their partisanship by 
wearing the tricolored cockade worn by republicans in 
France. The Republican party in America wished to 
bring in republican manners and simple tastes, and they 
objected to the stately ceremonies which Washington 
and the Federalists liked. 

The leader of the Federalists was General Alexan- 
der Hamilton. This great man was born in the Island 
of Nevis, in the West Indies, in January, 1757. His 
father was poor, and he was put into a counting- 
house. At fifteen years of age he wrote for the 
'• St. Christopher's Gazette " an account of a hur- 
ricane that had just desolated the Leeward West 
India Islands. The remarkable ability shown in 
this description attracted the attention of the 
-^ \ chief men of the place, and the boy was sent to 
^ the American continent to be educated. In 1774, 

when but seventeen years of age, while a student 
in King's College (now Columbia College), in New York, 
he made a speech on the Revolutionary side at a large 
meeting in the fields, which at once stamped him as a 
wonderful youth. He also wrote several anonymous 
pamphlets which attracted great attention, and were at- 
tributed to the leading men of the party. In 1776, when 
he was but nineteen, he took command of an artillery 
company, and so distinguished himself at the battle of 
White Plains and in the retreat across New Jersey that 
Washington put him on his own staff. He was employed 
by Washington in many delicate and confidential mis- 
sions, and he distintruished himself in more than one 



WA SHINGTON 'S PRESIDENCY. 2 I 7 

battle. He led the assault on one of the British out- 
works at Yorktown. But his great work lay in his efforts 
to persuade the American people to adopt the Federal 
Constitution, by which the national existence was firmly 
established. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, he 
held Congress firmly to the duty of paying every dollar 
of the national debt at its face. He also prevailed on 
Congress to adopt the debts incurred by the States in 
carrying on the war, and he thus established the credit 
of the nation and strengthened the Federal authority. 
In his notions of government he favored English mod- 
els. Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 
1804. 

The leader of the old Republican party was Thomas Jefferson the 

leader of the 

Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence. Republicans. 
He was Secretary of State in Washington's first Cabinet, 
while Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury ; so that 
the chiefs of the two great parties were in the Cabinet 
at the same time, a thing impossible in our day. 

During Washington's administration there began Indian troubles 

at the West 

those troubles with the Indians which have plagued the 
government and the people of the frontiers from that 
day to this. The English Government refused to sur- 
render forts which it held among the Indian tribes in 
what is now Ohio, and encouraged the savages to hos- 
tilities. There arose in consequence a most deadly and 
cruel war between the white settlers in Kentucky and 
the tribes living on the north side of the river. More 
than fifteen hundred Kentucky settlers had been killed 
in seven years, and very many carried away to die by 
torture or to languish in captivity. The name " Ken- 
tucky " signifies " Dark and Bloody Ground." It was 



2l8 HISTORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 




KENTUCKY CAPTIVE8. 



SO called by the savages 
because of the fierce encounters which took place there 
between the different Indian tribes, none of whom dared 
to inhabit Kentucky permanently. The horrible slaugh- 
ters of settlers in the same territory made it also a dark 
and bloody ground to the white people. 

General Harmer was sent against the Indians in Ohio 
in 1790, but the wily chiefs Blue Jacket and Little Tur- 
tle waited until he had divided his troops, when they 
fell on part of them, and destroyed them almost utterly. 



U'ASBIXGTO.V'S PRESIDENCY. 



219 




GENERAL 8T. CLAIR. 



General St. Clair was selected to attack the Indians st. ciair's 

irii- TT •iix-iT' defeat, 1791. 

in the tollowing year. He was surprised by Little Tur- 
tle and a strong force of Indians, who routed his army. 
The Indians butchered the wounded with the most bru- 
tal cruelty while St. Clair's army was in flight. 

Washington was greatly distressed at this defeat. 
He now selected General Wayne, who had gained dis- 
tinction in the Revolution, and whose courage was such 
that he was called " Mad Anthony Wayne." Wayne 
was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1745. 
He received a good education for the time, and be- 
came a land-surveyor. During the troublous times of wayn 
1774 and 1775 Wayne devoted himself to drilling military 
companies in his own county. He entered the 
army as colonel in 1776,. and distinguished him- 
self in many actions. His most notable ex- 
ploit, perhaps, was the storming of Stony 
Point, on the Hudson. This formidable work 
he carried at midnight by a bayonet-charge, 
the soldiers' guns being empty. He after- 
ward handled a small force in Georgia in 
such a way as to hold in check a much larger 
body of British troops. It was his careful organ- 
ization and bold execution of various enterprises 
during the Revolution which caused his selection by 
Washington to retrieve the fortunes of the Indian war 
after St. Clair's defeat. 

Wayne was as prudent as he was brave. The In- wayne's victory 

on the Maumee, 

dians called him " The Black Snake," and they also 1794. 
called him " The Chief who never Sleeps." After try- 
ing in vain to make peace with the Indians, Wayne 
attacked and defeated them, driving them from their 




HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




AGAINST THE INDIANS. 



Retirer 
death c 
ington. 



hiding-places by a 
brilliant bayonet- 
charge. This bat- 
tle was fought in 
1794, on the Mau- 
mee River, in north- 
western Ohio. The 
Indians received a 
chastisement so severe that it gained a peace 
which lasted eighteen years. When Wa^-ne 
returned from this successful expedition against 
the Indians, he was received in Philadelphia 
in triumph. 
There was about this time a rebellion in western 
Pennsylvania, known as " the Whisky Insurrection." 
The people of that remote region raised Indian corn. 
The roads over the mountains were such that they could 
not well haul this corn to market, so they fell to making 
it into whisky, in which shape it was less bulky and 
more easily carried. The new United States tax on 
whisky interfered with this business, and the people rose 
against the revenue officers. Washington sent troops 
to enforce the law, and the people submitted after the 
ringleaders of the rebellion had fled. 

Washington declined to be a candidate for the third 
time, and in September, 1796, the "Father of his Coun- 
\.ry " issued a farewell address, full of good advice. At 
the end of his term, in March, 1797, he retired to Mount 
A'ernon, where he spent his last daj-s in peace. He 
died December 14, 1799, almost at the close of the eight- 
eenth century. Of the many great men of the last 
century, he was, though not the most gifted, probably 



TROUBLES WITH ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 22 1 

the most illustrious. The whole United States paid 

honor to his memory, and to this time his is the only 
American birthday celebrated as a public holiday. 







CHAPTER XXXVII. 



TROUBLES WITH ENGLAND AND FRANCE. — PRESIDENCY 
OF JOHN ADAMS. 

When the English government acknowledged the Grounds of con 

plaint against 

independence of the United States, in 1783, there re- England, 
mained still in the hands of English troops, as we have 
said, certain military posts in the Indian country which 
were within the territory of the United States. The 
English government retained these posts among the In- 
dians, and, by the encouragement given to the tribes, 
kept alive the Indian war. When Wayne defeated the 
Indians on the Maumee, he found Canadians fighting on 
the side of the Indians, and he drove them before him 
under the very guns of a fort held by the English, who 
did not dare to aid the savages and their allies. There 
was also much anger in America against the English 
government on account of the illegal seizure of Ameri- 
can vessels by British cruisers. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Election of John 
Adams, 1796. 



To prevent a new war with Great Britain, Washing- 
ton sent John Jay to England in 1794 to make a treaty. 
" Jay's Treaty," as it was called, was very unpopu- 
lar in America, especially with the members of 
the Republican party, who thought that it yield- 
ed too much to England. But it was confirmed 
by Washington and the Senate, for, according 
to the Constitution, every treaty made with a 
foreign nation must be agreed to by the Sen- 
ate. It provided for the surrender of the West- 
\' ern forts by England, and it prevented a war with 
Great Britain, which would have been a misfor- 
tune to so weak a country as ours was at that time. 
When a war with England came at last, in 18 12, the 
United States had nearly twice as many people as it 
had when the Jay treaty was made. 

This treaty with Great Britain was exasperating to 
the French government, which was then engaged in war 
with England. As France had helped the United States 
to gain its independence, the French expected the assist- 
ance of America in their new war with England. Wash- 
ington wisely kept this country free from alliances with 
either of the contending nations. 

In 1796 John Adams, the candidate of the Federalist 
party, was chosen President over Thomas Jefferson, who 
was the candidate of the Republicans, or Democrats. 
Adams, who was the son of a farmer, was born in Brain- 
tree, ISIass., in 1735. He graduated at Harvard, taught 
school for two years, and began the practice of law when 
he was twenty-three years of age. He took an active 
part in the Stamp-Act agitations from 1765 onward. He 
removed to Boston in 1768, and soon became a leading 



TROUBLES WITH EXGLAND AXD FRAXCE. 




lawyer and a chief of the Revolu- 
tionary party. Adams was one of 
the foremost men in the Congress 
of 1774 and 1775, and was one of 
the leading advocates of the Decla- 
ration of ' Independence. He was 
one of the commissioners to nego- 
tiate the treaty of peace with Eng- 
land, and was minister at London 
for three years. Adams was Vice- 
President during the whole of Wash- 
ington's presidency. He was an 
able and courageous man, honest and true to his con- 
victions, but irritable and somewhat quarrelsome. His 
peculiarities had something to do with his unpopularity 
and his defeat when he ran for the presidency a second 
time. He died on the 4th of July, 1826, exactly fifty 
years after the Declaration of Independence, and on the 
same day with his ancient rival, Jefferson. 

The administration of Adams was occupied with 
the difficulties with France. That country, after the 
great Revolution that overthrew the monarchy in 1789, 
had now fallen into the hands of a government called 
the " Director}-." It was composed of five directors. 
The successes which their armies achieved under the 
command of the rising young general. Napoleon Bona- 
parte, made the Directory very overbearing. When 
the United States sent a new minister to Paris, the 
French government refused to receive him, and pres- 
ently ordered him to leave the countr)-. 

In 1797, President Adams, who desired to avoid a war 
if possible, sent three envoys to France, having assur- 




jurteous be- 
)r of the 
ch Direct- 



Directory 
: to extort 

ted State: 



the 



224 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 




Napoleon Bon 
parte. 



Removal of the 
capital to Wasl 
ington, 1800. 



ances that they would be received with honor. But 
the American envoys were informed that, in order to 
secure a peace, the United States must make a loan to 
the French government and pay secret bribes to the 
members of the Directory. 

The envoys refused this dishonorable demand, and, 
when it was known in America, the popular cry became, 
" Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute ! " 
The tricolored cockade was no longer worn, but a black 
cockade was put on by those in favor of a war with 
France. " Hail, Columbia," then a new song, became 
universally popular. Ships were built, an army was 
raised, and Washington was made commander-in-chief. 

But the French did not wish a war, and Napoleon Bo- 
naparte, who had now overthrown the French Directory, 
made a new agreement with the United States in Septem- 
ber, 1800. Thus the infant country again escaped a war. 
In the year 1800 the government was removed from 
Philadelphia to Washington City. In 1790 Congress had 
resolved to fix the perma- 
nent capital on the Potomac 
River, and the selection of 
the site was left to Wash- 
ington himself. When the 
government moved there, in 
1800, the place was almost a 
wilderness. The few people 
living in the new town were 
scattered over the whole region, and one sometimes 
had to go a mile or two through a forest to see his 
next-door neighbor, though both were living within the 
" Federal Citv," as Washington had named it. 




: WHITE HOUSE. 



THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



225 



It was thouafht desirable that the national capital The District of 

'^ ^ Columbia. 

should not be within the jurisdiction of any State. A 
tract ten miles square was given by Virginia and Mary- 
land to form the District of Columbia. But the portion 
taken from Virginia was afterward ceded back to that 
State. The District of Columbia is governed wholly by 
laws made in Congress, in which its inhabitants have no 
representative. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 




ELECTION OF JEFFERSON. — WAR WITH TRIPOLI. 

The Federalists favored a strong gov- 
ernment, as we have said, and, like every 
party, they were inclined to carry their 
principles to an extreme. In the excite- 
ment caused by the troubles between the 
United States and France they were led to 
pass laws more stringent than was neces- 
sary, and certainly more severe than pub- 
lic opinion justified. Foreigners were required to live 
in America fourteen years before they could be natu- The 
ralized. By what was called the "Alien Law," the 
President was given authority to send out of the 
country, without trial, any " alien " or unnaturalized 
foreigner. By the " Sedition Law," speakers and news- 
paper writers were to be severely punished for " libel- 
ing " the officers of the government. Many of the peo- 
ple thought the alien law took away the right of trial 
by jury, and that the sedition law attacked free speech 




THOMAS JEFFERSON, 



ELECTION OF JEFFERHON: 22 7 

and a free press. The unpopularity of these laws con- 
tributed to the overthrow of the Federal party, and the 
cry of " the Alien and Sedition Laws " was kept up 
against the party to the end of its existence. 

In the presidential election of 1800, John Adams was services ren 

iT^ii* 1*1 1* 11 1 dered by the 

the rederalist candidate a second time, but he was de- Federalists. 
feated, and the Federalist part)^ never was able to elect 
another President. The Federalists had secured the adop- 
tion of the Federal Constitution ; they had made the na- 
tional government strong ; and they had begun the work 
of paying the national debt in full, and so making the 
credit of the government good. No party ever did a 
better work than the Federalists did in bringing a bank- 
rupt and disorderly confederacy into a firm union. 

But the Federalists leaned too much to the English The Repubii. 

party and its 

notions of government that had prevailed before the work. 
Revolution. The Republicans held more to the equality 
of men ; they trusted the people, and believed in prog- 
ress toward a larger personal liberty. The Federalist 
movement made us a nation ; but the movement repre- 
sented by the old Republican party made us republi- 
cans and Americans. 

The events which took place during the election of The oid mod 

. . . of electing a 

1800 disclosed a serious defect in the workings of the President. 
Constitution. The convention which framed that instru- 
ment had been afraid to trust the people with the elec- 
tion of the chief magistrate of the nation, perhaps be- 
cause they had not been accustomed to such an election 
by the people in the colonies. At one time it was the 
intention of the framers of the Constitution to have the 
President elected by Congress ; but this seemed to make 
him too dependent on that body. So a new plan was 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Struggle betwee 
Jefferson and 



invented. The people were to choose " electors " in 
every State, in proportion to the population of the State, 
or rather to its number of representatives in Congress. 
Each of these electors was to vote for two men for 
President. The one receiving the highest vote was to 
be President, the one receiving the second highest num- 
ber was to be Vice-President. This plan produced a 
quite unexpected effect in 1796, in which year John 
Adams was made President, and Thomas Jefferson, the 
leader of the opposite party, became Vice-President. 

In 1800 the Republicans resolved to elect Jefferson 
President and Aaron Burr Vice-President ; but, as the 
only way of electing a Vice-President was by voting 
for him as one of the two candidates for President, it 
happened that both Jefferson and Burr received the 
votes of all the Republican electors, and had, therefore, 
exactly the same number of electoral votes, although 
nobody had thought of Burr for President. The Con- 
^JiT'if '^"^^ stitution provided then, as it does now, that the choice 
!i:i/>i^M VA between the two, in case of a tie-vote, should be b}' 
;"■ the House of Representatives. The Federalists dis- 
liked Jefferson in particular, as the great chief of the 
Republicans ; the most of them, therefore, voted for 
Burr. This produced a new tie in the House of 
Representatives, and there was danger that the 4th 
of March would arrive and find the country without 
a President ; but, after a long struggle, some of the 
Federalists cast blank votes, and allowed Jefferson to 
be elected. 

This dangerous struggle led to a change in the Con- 
stitution, by which the electors were to vote for but one 
candidate for President and one for Vice-President. 



:j.: 



JEFFERSON'S TIME. 



The Constitution 
changed. 



IVJJ? IVITH TRIPOLI. 



229 



This method of voting for electors still prevails, but it 
has not served the purpose intended by the founders of 
the government. They hoped that each State would 
choose a body of its ablest men, and that the people 
would leave the work of choosing a President to these 
electors. But the people vote for electors, each pledged 
to vote for a particular man. The voter takes no notice 
of the names of che men for whom he votes as electors ; 
he really votes for the candidate for President. The 
electors only serve to record the popular vote by States, amerk 

During Jefferson's time, the United States was at 
peace with all the great powers. The wars raging in 
Europe had injured the commerce of England and Prosp. 
France. Foreign merchants, whose countries were at merce 
war, preferred to send goods in American vessels, to 
prevent their being captured by the enemy. In this way 
American commerce became very prosperous. 

The little Mohammedan states, along the southern war ■ 

Bar 

coast of the Mediterranean, had long carried on a pirati- ,801 
cal warfare against the trade of Christian countries. The 
nations of northern Europe paid them a yearly tribute to 
protect their ships from robbery. The United States 
was obliged to redeem from slavery Americans captured 
by the Dey of Algiers, and also to pay tribute. But in 
1801 the Pasha of Tripoli, having been refused addi- 
tional presents, broke into 
open war. 

This war may almost be 
said to mark the birth of 
the American nav3^ It was 
a period in which Amer- 
icans were fond of danger- 




■ity of 
an com- 



th the 
bary pirates, 



I, I f i:j}-;. 






v^ 



^-' ^i 



f^~'"~\ ^» c"^ 2c^ '' ■■'/■J .4 J 

-7 ° « ■■■ * ■■■ > "A-<j> 



!30 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Achievements of ous cxploits. The officcrs and men of this small sea- 
force, mostly recruited from merchant-ships, performed 



navy in this 
. Peace, 1805. 



^ 



(i^rv 



3 




6TEPHEN OECATUR. 



The later war 
with Algiers. 
Abolition of 
tribute, 1815. 



acts of daring before Tripoli which have never been 
forgotten, and which yet serve for an example to their 
successors. In many actions Americans boarded the 
pirate-ships, and fought in desperate hand-to-hand en- 
counters, with swords, pikes, and bayonets. The frig- 
ate Philadelphia, having run on the rocks, was captured 
by the Tripolitans, and the crew reduced to slavery. 
Lieutenant Decatur ran into the harbor at night in a 
ketch, boarded the frigate and burned her, escaping 
with his men by rowing his little boat under a 
storm of fire from the enemy's batteries. After four 
years of blockade and war, the obstinate ruler of Trip- 
oli was brought to terms. He made a treaty of 
peace in 1805. 
, , But in 18 12, Algiers, another of the Barbary 

powers, declared war against this country, capt- 
ured American vessels, and reduced the crews to 
slavery. The same Stephen Decatur, who, as a Heuten- 
ant, burned the Philadelphia, was sent to the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, in 181 5, as commodore of a squadron. He 
captured the chief vessels of the Dey, and forced that 
prince to release his prisoners, and to come on board 
the commodore's ship and sign a treaty. The United 
States never afterward paid tribute to any of the pirate 
powers. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF THE GREAT VALLEY. 23 1 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE SETTLEMENT OF THE GREAT VALLEY. 
The first settlers in Virginia tried more than once Eariy expedi- 

11 • 1 • ^1111 \ tions to the 

to reach the mountanis, hoping to hnd gold there. At westward. 
a later period the Virginians sought to cross the mount- 
ains in order to get to the Pacific Ocean. In 1679 a 
German explorer named Lederer tried to go across the 
mountains from Virginia ; but the people who went with 
him deserted him, and, though he boldly pursued his 
journey alone and returned safely, he seems barely to 
have succeeded in reaching the mountains, and he cer- 
tainly did not come anywhere near to the Pacific. Gov- 
ernor Spotswood, of Virginia, also tried to go through 
the mountains with a company of gentlemen, and he 
claimed to have discovered a pass by which one could 
get over. When he came back he instituted an order ol 
" Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," formed at first of 
those who had been with him on the journey. The 
people in the colonies commonly rode their horses bare- 
foot ; but for this extraordinary journey in the mount- 
ains, where there were rocks, it became necessary to shoe 
the horses. Hence the name of this order, every mem- 
ber of which wore a golden horseshoe. 

But, while the French were exploring the whole in- opposition to 

, ,. ,. 111. r ^Vestern settle 

tenor valley and making friends and allies 01 many sav- ment. 
age tribes, the English authorities in the colonies were 
without much enterprise in this direction. It was thought 
by English statesmen that settlements in the interior 
would neither buy English goods nor be subject to Eng- 



232 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



nd M 



lish control, so that it was a favorite plan with them at 
one time to establish a western boundary beyond which 
the settlements should not advance, which was much 
like making a law to regulate the tides of the sea. 
f >he But the mysterious wilderness, infested by tribes of 

fierce and cruel Indians, piqued the curiosity of daring 
men, and from time to time one and another ventured 
to push far into the unknown land and bring back 
strange stories of its appearance. It was told that one 
John Howard, with his son, at an early period, had 
traveled through the desolate mountains to the Ohio 
River. Here they killed a buffalo-bull and made a boat 
by stretching the animal's hide over ribs of wood, after 
the frontiersman's manner. In this frail craft they made 
their way many thousands of miles down the Ohio and 
Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, where the French 
authorities, who then possessed Louisiana, sent them to 
France on suspicion of being spies. They were afterward 
released, and got back to Virginia. In 1766 the same 
perilous voyage was made in a pirogue by Captain Gor- 
don, a British engineer. 

In the gradual spread of settlements from the sea 
back toward the mountains there had been formed a new 
race of men, the like of whom the world had hardly ever 
known before. These were the frontiersmen, who kept 
moving forward in advance of the settlements; men lov- 
ing solitude, hardship, and danger for their own sakes. 
The whole power of the British Empire could not have 
prevented these daring fellows from following their im- 
pulse and pushing across the mountains into the western 
valleys. They were trained from their youth in all the 
arts by which a backwoodsman lives without buying or 



THE SETTLEMEyT OF THE GREAT VALLEY. ^XX 

selling. Such men know how to get food and raiment 
and shelter in the most desolate wilderness with no other 
tools than a trusty rifle and a sharp knife, and no sup- 
plies but what they can carry in powder-horns and bullet- 
bags. If the first settlements at Jamestown and Plym- 
outh could have been planted by such a race of pio 
neers, half the early miseries of these colonies would 
have been avoided. 

One of the finest types of this class was Daniel 
Boone. He lived on the Yadkin River, in North 
Carolina. As early as 1760 Boone crossed the 
Alleghanies into the unbroken wilderness. There 
stands, or stood until lately, a tree in Eastern Ten- 
nessee which bore the following inscription carved 
upon it, probably by Boone himself, with that awkward 
use of letters to be expected of a backwoodsman : 
" D. Boon Cilled A. Bar On Tree in ThE yEAR 1760." 

In 1769 Boone went into what is now Kentucky with 
a party. One of his companions was killed by the In- 
dians, one was eaten by wolves, and three were lost, 
no one knows how. Boone himself had been seven 
days a captive among the Indians, but had managed to 
escape. There being no one left but Boone and his 
brother, the brother went back for ammunition and 
horses, and Daniel Boone was for one winter the only 
white inhabitant of Kentuck)'. During this time he had 
frequently to change his sleeping-place from night to 
night in order to avoid falling into the hands of lurking 
savages ; and he had an encounter with a bear, from 
whose grip he only saved himself by killing it with his 
knife. At this time he was three years without tasting 
bread or salt. After he had built a palisaded fort and 




^34 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



pion 



brought settlers to Kentuck\-, his daughter and two 
other young girls were carried off by the savages, and 
Boone was captured in trying to rescue them. He was 
only released b}' an attack made by his friends when he 
had been tied to a tree to be put to death. Carried 
into captivity afterward, he barely escaped torture, and 
was adopted into the tribe, from which he escaped in 
time to warn his friends at Boonsborough that a party 
was marching to attack the place. In a fight with two 
Indians he exposed himself enough to draw the fire of 
one of them, whom he sliot ; then, drawing the fire of 
the other in the same wa)" and dodging it, he came to a 
hand-to-hand struggle, and warded a blow from the sav- 
age's tomahawk with his empty gun while he killed 
his antagonist with his knife. Boone survived his perils, 
and lived to see populous States where he had explored 
trackless forests. He died in Missouri, at the age of 
eighty-three, 
dihood of the Kcntucky was settled by men of this type, and an 
equally bold race took possession of Tennessee and of 
the other States west of the Allcghanies. The incessant 
conflicts with the savages, who were encouraged bv the 
English during the whole period of the Revolution. 
would have disheartened men and women of anv other 
type. But in the middle of every stockade like Boons- 
borough there was an open space where these daring 
people, when not actually beleaguered bv Indians or 
engaged in toil, forgot their hardships and perils in 
social intercourse or passed their leisure hours in merry 
frolics and dances. This race, now disappearing, was 
distinctly the product of American conditions, and has 
left its stamp upon the interior country to this day. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF THE GREAT VALLEY. 



235 



-7 



Some of the colonics had been chartered to run Territory nc 

of the Ohio 

through to the Pacific Ocean, and these claimed all the ceded to the 
territory west of them as far as the United States ex- 
tended — that is, to the Mississippi Kiver. The Virginia 
charter, which was the oldest, made the line of that 
colony run " west and northwest." Under this charter 
Virginia claimed much of the territory north of the 
Ohio River, and all of that which now forms Kentucky. 
The territory lying north of the Ohio was ceded to 
the United States by Virginia and the other States 
claiming it. 

In 1787 this territory 
was organized as " The 
Northwest Territory," 
and its government was 
regulated by an act 
which has since be- 
come very celebrated. 
It is commonly known 
as " The Ordinance of 
Eighty-seven," from the 
year in which it was 
adopted. The Ordinance 
of Eighty-seven declared 
that, in the Northwest 
Territory, all children of 
a father who died without a will should inherit the 
estate equally, thus doing away with the aristocratic The Northwest 

. .| . Ill 1 1 T^ 1 . , Territory estab- 

privileges given to the oldest son under the English nshcd by the 
and colonial laws. It also forbade slavery in the terri- Eighly-sev^n!" 
tory north of the Ohio. This ordinance made Ohio, In- 
diana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin free States. 




236 HISTORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 

The Ohio pio- The foundation of the State of Ohio was laid bv a 

neers. 

company of emigrants from New England, who settled 
on the Muskingum River in 1788. They were led by 
General Rufus Putnam and the Rev. Manasseh Cutler. 
They called the boat which floated them down the river 
on their arrival the " Mayflower." They called their 
new town Marietta, in honor of Marie Antoinette, then 
Queen of France, who had taken a lively interest in the 
American Revolution. These settlers were a fine body 
of educated people. They suffered many hardships and 
perils during the Indian wars. 
Great rush of Soou after thc adoptlou of the Ordinance of 1787 and 

emigrants to 

the West. the purchasc of the Indian title to the land, people began 

to pour into the Western country, some to the north side 
of the Ohio, others to re-enforce the settlements already 
established by Boone and his companions in Kentucky, 
or those founded by Robertson, Sevier, and other pio- 
neers in Tennessee. A large number of Revolutionary 
officers and soldiers, impoverished by the war, were 
among these settlers, particularl}- in Ohio. The first 
emigrants carried their few goods over the mountains 
on pack-horses. Those settling on either side of the 
Ohio embarked at Pittsburg or Wheeling in large flat- 
boats roughly built of green lumber. In these they 
floated down the river to one of the new settlements on 
its banks. The flat-boat was then broken up, and its 
planks used in building the settler's cabin. Pennsylvania 
wagons, after a while, took the place of the pack-horse 
in the journe}' over the mountains to Pittsburg. 

Rude and danger- Thc peoplc of this interior country were almost shut 

ous life of the ^ "^ . "^ 

first settlers west out from the wodd. They raised flax and sometimes 

of the mountains , . , . , ~,, 

grew wool, and spun and wove at home. Iheir spm- 



THE SETTLEMENT OF THE GREAT VALLEY. 



237 



ning-wheels and looms were made by themselves. For 
chairs they made rude stools, their tables and bedsteads 
were such as they could make, and they used wooden 
bowls for dishes. They tanned their own leather, and 
made rude shoes at home, but half the year they went 
barefoot when not on a journey. The husks of Indian 
corn were used for making various articles, such as ropes, 
horse-collars, brooms, and chair-bottoms. Barrels and 
bee-hives were made by sawing hollow trees into sec- 
tions. By splitting one of these sections a child's cradle 
was constructed. For tea they drank a decoction of sas- 
safras-root or the leaves of the crop-vine. Their sugar 
they got from the maple-tree. Their small boat was a 
canoe made from a single log, or a pirogue, which was 
a canoe enlarged by splitting it in the middle lengthwise 
and inserting a plank. The danger from Indians was 
so great for many years that the settlers never went to 
their fields without carrying their rifles. 

Whatever supplies the Western settlers got, they Pack-horse and 

flat-boat trade. 

brought from the towns on the eastern side of the mount- 
ains, by means of pack-horses and wagons. Even iron 
was thus imported, and in many regions salt brought on 
pack-horses sold for ten dollars a pound. For these 
goods the settlers exchanged furs, ginseng, and other 
light articles. The produce of Western farms was too 
heavy to be packed across the mountains. It could only 
be sold by floating it thousands of miles down the Ohio 
and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. This was done 
mostly in very large flat-boats, which were rowed down 
the river with great sweeps, but could not be brought 
back against the current. The flat-boat men at first got 
home in a roundabout way by taking passage on ships 



= 38 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



sailing from New Orleans to Virginia or Maryland, and 
then crossing the mountains to Pittsburg. 
Boats and boat- But, as there was a necessity for some trade up the 

men on the Ohio . n i i i i i 

and Mississippi, river as wcU as down, there were presently used the 
••bargee" and the "keel-boat," both of which had sharp- 
ened bows, and could be toilsomely forced up against the 
stream by setting poles, oars, and sails in turn, and which 
sometimes were towed, or " cordelled," by the boatmen 
walking along the shore. Four months were consumed 
in the voyage from New Orleans to Pittsburg. The 
boatmen were rude and lawless, and navigation was ren- 
dered dangerous by the Indians and highwaymen that 
infested the banks of the rivers. 



CHAPTER XL. 

THE PURCH.\SE OF LOUISIANA AND THE TREASON OF 
AARON BURR. 

Settlement of Of coursc, the Settlements of English people before 

1800 were all made in the countr}- east of the Mis- 
sissippi, which was then the western line of the United 
States. All the territory from the Mississippi to the 
Rockv Mountains was included in what was then called 
Louisiana. We have related in a previous chapter how 
the region about the mouth of the Mississippi River 
was first explored by La Salle. The first settlement in 
Louisiana was made in 1699 by emigrants from France. 
In 1722 New Orleans was made the capital of the 
Louisiana country, and in 1727 wives were sent out to 



THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 



239 



the settlers on the plan adopted by the English for 
peopling Virginia a hundred years earlier. In 1762, 
after the English had taken Canada, France ceded 
Louisiana to Spain. For a long time the principal in- 
dustry was the raising of indigo, but in 1794 the cult- 
ure of sugar was introduced, and the colony was at once 
rendered prosperous. 

As the mouths of the Mississippi were entirely in The French offer 

to sell the prov- 

Louisiana, Spain wished to deny to our people the ince. 
right to navigate the river freely. The Western people 
were a warlike race, and they wished to make short 
work of the difficulty by seizing New Orleans and the 
lower Mississippi. Our government sought to make 
a more prudent settlement by buying enough of Lou- 
isiana to give us a way to the sea. But in the year 
1800 Napoleon Bonaparte, who was fast getting control 
of Europe, procured the cession of Louisiana back to 
France. He entertained, along with the other dazzling 
schemes that filled his brain, the project of rebuilding 
the French power in America. James Monroe and 
Robert R. Livingston were commissioned by President 
Jefferson to buy from France, if possible, the portion 
of Louisiana needed to secure to the United States a 
free navigation to the sea, including the city of New 
Orleans. But Napoleon had begun to see that Eng- 
land, all-powerful at sea, would wrest Louisiana from 
his grasp. He therefore surprised the American com- 
missioners by offering to sell to the United States the 
whole territory. The commissioners had no instruc- 
tions to make so large a purchase, but there was no 
time to communicate with America; the opportunity to 
more than double the territory of their country was a 



240 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



--§8 ' ' ''^ H r 



Territory in- 
cluded in the 



Discontent in 
the Southwest. 



dazzling one, and they concluded a treaty of purchase, 
by which the United States was to pay fifteen million 
dollars. When the treaty was concluded, the negotiators 
all rose, and Livingston said : " We have lived long, and 
this is the fairest work of our lives. The treat}- we 
have just signed will transform a 
vast wilderness into a flourishing 
country. From this day the United 
States becomes a first-class power. 
The articles we have signed will 
produce no tears, but ages of hap- 
piness for countless human beings." 
By this purchase the country ac- 
quired more territory than all she 
had before possessed, and there 
was opened to her the prospect 
of becoming one of the greatest 
nations on the earth. 

French Louisiana included in 
whole or in part the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mis- 
souri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, 
and the Territories of Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and 
the Indian Territory — that is to say, there are at present 
twelve very large States and Territories almost wholly 
made from Louisiana as bought from France in 1803. 

Before the purchase of Louisiana there had been 
some dissatisfaction in the Western country, and a 
few restless characters had labored to further a project 
for separating the interior country from the Eastern 
States, which seemed remote in that day of slow 
and tedious traffic by horse-paths through the mount- 
ains. After the annexation, the French inhabitants 




THE TREASON OF AAROX BURR. 



241 




of New Orleans, 
and the region 
about it, were 
not well pleased 
that they had 
been transferred 
to the United 
States without 
their own con- 
sent. Spain at 
that time held 
Texas, and was in 
a state of semi- 
hostility to the 

United States. The people of the Southwest, on the 
other hand, were not averse to war with Spain. These 
various causes of discontent and disturbance offered a 
field for an ambitious and intriguing man. Such a man 
was Aaron Burr. 

After Burr had allowed himself to be used against his 
own party in 1800, endeavoring to snatch the presi- 
dency from Jefferson whom he had supported, the 
Republicans would have nothing to do with him. 
The Federalists, hoping to succeed by the aid of 
Burr's friends, nominated him for Governor of New 
York. But Alexander Hamilton, the great leader 
of the Federalists, would not support a man so 
mischievous as Burr, and he procured his defeat. 
Burr, in revenge, fought a duel with Hamilton 
and killed him. This made Burr more than '' 
ever detested, and he now embarked in a dark 
scheme to seize territory from the Spaniards in Mex- 




242 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ico, and probably to detach Louisiana and perhaps all 
of the Western States from the United States, and so 
to play the small Napoleon on the American conti- 
nent. He enlisted soldiers and procured arms, and 
started flat-boats loaded with these down the Ohio and 
the Mississippi. But his plot was discovered and he 
was tried for treason, but he could not be convicted 
for want of suf^cient evidence. He spent most of his 
remaining years in poverty and popular neglect, and 
died at an advanced age. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

BEGINNING OF THE SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND. 

The war between DURING Jcffcrson's administration the English govern- 

England and 

France. mcut was iuvolvcd in a long war with Napoleon, who had 

made himself Emperor of the French, and had conquered 
a great part of western Europe. He was, perhaps, the 
greatest militar}' genius of modern times, and it seemed 
that nothing could withstand his armies. But Great 
Britain, being an island, was protected by the interven- 
ing channel from the advance of Napoleon's troops. 
England, moreover, remained in possession of the sea as 
the greatest maritime power in the world. 

Impressment of English uaval ofificcrs were allowed to impress seamen 

from British merchant ships — that is, to force them to 
serve in ships of war — and in this struggle with Napo- 
leon they found themselves in great need of seamen. But 
England had also long claimed the right to impress her 



THE SECOXD WAR WITH EXGLAND. 



243 



own subjects when found on ships of other nations. 
Many English sailors sought employment in American 
ships, and every man born in Great Britain who sailed 
before the mast in an American vessel was liable to be 
seized by an English man-of-war. As English naval offi- 
cers were allowed to judge whether a man was a native 
of their country or not, thousands of natives of America 
were impressed on British ships. It was very exasperat- 
ing to Americans to have their ships stopped on the 
high-seas and searched, and their citizens forced to serve 
in the navy of a foreign power. American seamen hated 
this impressment system ; and one poor fellow, when or- 
dered to get his clothes and come on board an English 
man-of-war, went below and chopped off his left hand, 
and came on deck with the bleeding stump, on which the 
officer left without him. But England was all-powerful 
on the sea, and the United States had to bear with such 
insults or give up sailing ships. 

During this war between England and France, which interference with 

111 1 1 ■ ■!• 1 11 • 1 1 °"'' commerce. 

shook the whole civilized world, our country tried to be 
neutral. But England wished to interrupt our trade with 
the countries under control of France, while Bonaparte 
issued orders to check our trade with England. The 
successive decrees which these two powers issued, one 
after another, became so severe at last that our ships 
could not sail to any port without the greatest danger of 
being seized by the cruisers of one or the other nation. 
As the English were much stronger at sea than the 
French, they did us the more harm. 

If our country had been strong, it would not have The embargo of 
borne these outrages so long ; but it was then but a small 
nation, and far from being prepared for a war with Eng- 



244 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




land. President Jefferson was very anxious to avoid war, 
and to go on paying off the debt of the country, which 
was his leading purpose. The President thought that 
the United States might get the offensive decrees re- 
pealed by stopping all its trade with the outside world. 
An act was therefore passed in December, 1807, forbid- 
ding the departure of vessels from American ports. This 
was known as "The Embargo of 1807," or "Jefferson's 
Embargo." The embargo was the only very unfortunate 
act of Jefferson's administration, which, up to this time, 
had been most popular. It was like destroying our own 
commerce to keep others from ruining it. While our 
ships rotted in port, English ships got the trade with 
other nations which we had lost. New England and New 
York suffered heavily by the destruction of their com- 
merce, and were therefore very much opposed to the 
embargo. Some hot-headed people in the Eastern States 
talked of dissolving the Union, to get rid of the embargo, 
which would have been much like cutting off one's head 
to cure a toothache. The embargo was called a " terra- 
pin policy," as though the country had pulled its head 
and feet into its shell, as a terrapin does when frightened. 
This embargo lasted about fourteen months, until the 

law was repealed in 1809. 

In 1808, James Madison, of Virginia, was elected to 

succeed Jefferson. He was the candidate of the Re- 
publican, or Democratic, party, for, notwithstand- 
ing the unpopularity of the embargo, the Federal- 
ist party was now so much in the minority that it 

carried but a little over one fourth of the electoral 
vote. George Clinton, of New York, was elected Vice- 
President. 



THE SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



245 




In 181 1 the irritation of the American people against xecumseh an 
England was increased by the outbreak of an Indian war 
in the Northwest. It was believed that English agents 
furnished arms to the Indians, and encouraged their 
hostility to the settlers. The Indians were at this 
time under the control of the great Shawnee chief 
Tecumseh and his brother, who was called " the 
Prophet," and who pretended to speak by inspira- 
tion. These brothers were two of three chil- 
dren born at the same time. They were of 
the Shawnee tribe. Tecumseh was a war- 
rior, while his brother wrought upon the su- 
perstitions of the Indians by falling into trances 
and pretending to be a prophet. He carried about 
a string of sacred beans and other objects of reverence. 
He and Tecumseh deserted their own tribe and settled 
on the Wabash, where the fame of the Prophet's visions 
and other hugger-muggering drew multitudes of Indians 
from various tribes to them. When any chief or other 
influential man opposed the schemes of the brothers, the 
Prophet had influence enough to have him put to death 
for witchcraft. 

Tecumseh took the extreme ground that the whole Tecumseh's con- 

federacy. 

country belonged to all the tribes in common, and that 
the tribes who had sold their lands to the white men had 
done what they had no right to do. He wished to force 
the government to give up all lands north of the Ohio. 
He traveled from tribe to tribe, trying to form a con- 
federacy of all the Indian nations. Those gathered about 
him were from several different tribes ; he really formed 
a new tribe of Indians, whom he gathered from one band 
and another into his personal following. 



246 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Battle of Tippe- In Octobcr, 1811, General Harrison, then Governor 
of Indiana Territory, marched with nine hundred men 
against Tecumseh's tribe at Tippecanoe. On 
the 6th of November, Harrison arrived at 
the Prophet's town. Here he was met by 
a deputation of three Indians with a peaceful 
message. The general, therefore, encamped 
for the night, the men sleeping on their arms. 
Tecumseh was absent from the town, and the 
Prophet had no one to hold him in check. 
About an hour before daylight the savages 
attacked Harrison's camp. The frontiersmen 
who formed Harrison's force were asleep 
when firing began, but they soon rallied, put 
out their fires, so that the Indians should not see them, 
and then fought bravely in the dark, Harrison rode 
from one part of the line to another with great steadi- 
ness, though his hat-brim was perforated and his hair 
grazed by a bullet. The Prophet kept at a safe dis- 
tance on a neighboring hill, where he chanted a war- 
song in a loud voice. Animated by their fanaticism 
and the song of their Prophet, the savages came 
out from cover and fought with a daring unusual 
in their battles. But, shortly after daylight, the 
troops made a final charge, which drove the 
Indians from the field. The loss on both 
sides was heavy. Tecumseh returned from 
the South a little while after, to find his town 
in ruins and his confederacy destroyed. 

In June, i8i2, the United States declared 
war against England. Preparations were im- 
mediately made for invading Canada ; but the 




THE SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND. 



247 



Americans had rushed into war without being read}', Declaration of 

war, 1812. Eng- 

and they met nothing but disaster at first. The Cana- lish successes. 

dian authorities, on the other hand, had taken every 

precaution against invasion. The first blow was struck 

by them in the far-off wilderness. Fort Mackinaw, on 

an island in the straits between Lake Michigan and 

Lake Huron, was captured by a force of English and 

Indians before the American commander there had heard 

of the declaration of war. This removed all restraint 

from the already hostile savages of the upper country, 

and gave to the English the support of all the Indian 

tribes of the interior. 

There was a little gar- 
rison in Fort Dearborn, 
where the city of Chicago 
now stands. When Macki- 
naw had fallen into the 
hands of the English, this 
garrison was ordered to 
evacuate the fort ; but, as 
they marched out, they 
were attacked by Indians, and, after a desperate strug- 
gle, they were nearly all killed. 

An old Revolutionary officer. General Hull, had been surrender or 
sent to invade Canada by way of Detroit. But Hull was 
unfitted by age to command. The authorities at Wash- 
ington had managed badly in not supplying and support- 
ing him as they should, and he had not the vigor to over- 
come the difficulties by which he was beset. He sur- 
rendered Detroit, against the judgment of his officers, 
to the great grief of the army and the bitter disappoint- 
ment of the country. 




248 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Indians in the Meantime the little garrison at Fort Wayne, and the 

eighteen men under Zachary Taylor in Fort Harrison, 
successfully endured with splendid fortitude sieges from 
hordes of Indians, who tried every means their ingenuity 
could devise to cut off these two places, both of which 
were at length relieved. Tecumseh had been made a 
brigadier-general in the British army, and his popularity 
had drawn a powerful band of Indian warriors to his 
standard. At the surrender of Detroit the British gen- 
eral, Brock, put his own scarf on Tecumseh as a mark of 
distinction, which highly pleased the chief. But he was 
too wily to wear it ; he put the scarf on Round Head, 
a warrior of the Wyandots, older than himself. 




CHAPTER XLII. 

THE NAVY IN THE WAR OF l8l2. 

Madison's career J AMES Madison, thc President elected in 1808, was 

and character. 

re-elected in 1812. Madison was born in Virginia in 
175 1. In youth he was an industrious student, and was 
in some regards the best provided with knowledge of all 
the American statesmen of his time. He was honest and 



THE NAVY IN THE WAR OF iSl3. 



249 




MES MADISON, 



faithful to the last degree. During the Revolution he 
was a member of the Virginia Legislature, and later a 
member of Congress. He was one of the first promoters 
of the convention that framed the 
Constitution, of which he became a 
leading member, and he did much to 
secure the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion by the several States. He was 
one of the earliest advocates of entire 
religious liberty. Madison held the 
office of Secretary of State in Jeffer- 
son's administration. As a member 
of the Constitutional Convention and 
of Congress, he proved himself one of 
the foremost statesmen of the coun- 
try, and he had much influence in 
giving shape to the government; but Madison was less 
fitted for the presidency than for the floor of Congress. 
He was lacking in military qualities, and he was forced 
into the war by the opinion of the country and against 
his own judgment, so that the President was from the 
start but a half-hearted leader. Madison retired in 1817, 
at the end of his second term, and he died in 1836, at 
the age of eighty-five. 

At the beginning of the war the generals selected to chan 

soldi' 

command were mostly Revolutionary officers, too old to 
be good commanders. The soldiers were high-spirited, 
but undisciplined. They sometimes refused to obey a 
disagreeable order, or to follow an unpopular command- 
er; sometimes they turned about and went home. They 
even threatened the life of a general whom they thought 
guilty of cowardice. 



250 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Attempt to in 
vade Canada. 



Neglect of the 
navy at the be- 
ginning of the 
war. 



The main purpose of the government at the begin- 
ning of the war had been to invade Canada. But the old 
General Dearborn, who had command of the army on 
the Canadian frontier, was inefficient. The troops were 
brave, and some of the officers distinguished themselves 
in various battles, but the conquest of Canada proved a 
difficult task. General Hull, as we have seen, contrived 
to lose Detroit and the whole Northwest. 

The Republican party of that day, which was the 
party advocating the war, had always professed a dis- 
like for a navy. In preparing for war, the whole reli- 
ance had been upon the army, and the little navy had 
been neglected. The success of our soldiers was not 
doubted, but it seemed folly for a few ships to encount- 
er the navy of Great Britain, which was then com- 
pletely " mistress of the seas." It was generally believed 
the world over that no seamen could hold their own 
against the British, and it had become a proverb that, 
when the French launched a man-of-war, it was only 
another ship for the English to capture. Our govern- 
ment was so much convinced of English superiority that 
it even tried to keep its strongest ships in harbor to save 
them from the enemy, and they were only allowed to 
sail on the indignant protest of the naval officers — the 
only persons in the world who had any faith in the 
American navy. When our men-of-war put to sea, it 
was said that they would soon be captured, and the 
government relieved of the expense of maintaining them. 
Yet in the first year of the war the failures of the army 
under weak officers were most disheartening, and the 
country was only saved from complete discouragement 
by the bold triumphs of the daring little navy. 



THE NAVY IN THE WAR OF 1812. 



251 



The first inspiriting success of the navy was merely The frigate co 

T^i r • r^ • • stitution. 

a success of seamanship. The frigate Constitution was 
chased by a squadron of British ships in wind so light 
that both parties were forced at times to tow their ships 
by sending boats ahead, or to pull them forward by drop- 
ping kedge-anchors. The English put most of their boats 
to towing one frigate, in order to overhaul and cripple 
the Constitution, so that the rest might capture her. It 




was only by superior management of all the devices 
known for getting ahead at sea that the seamen on the 
Constitution contrived, after three days and nights of 
almost unresting toil, to lose sight of their pursuers, who 
had been more than once within long cannon-shot. 

But the Constitution did not content herself with constitution 

, . . T A *"'' Guerriere. 

saving her timbers from a superior force. In August, 
1812, Captain Isaac Hull, on board that vessel, encount- 
ered the frigate Guerriere, one of the vessels that had 



252 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




^T^. 




lately chased the Constitution. There ensued one 
of those desperate naval duels of a sort which 
can never take place again, perhaps, since wooden 
men-of-war propelled only by sails have fallen into 
disuse. In one hour and ten minutes the Guer- 
ri^re was disabled and captured. The effect of 
this success in America was as tremendous as it 
was unexpected. When, soon after, the sloop-of- 
war Wasp beat the English sloop Frolic, the pub- 
lic joy knew no bounds ; for, though the damage 
our little navy could do was small, it had at last proved 
that the English were not invincible at sea. One of the 
most notable captures was that of the Macedonian b}^ the 
frigate United States, under command of Stephen De- 
catur, the same who, as a young man, had captured and 
set fire to the Philadelphia under the 
batteries of Tripoli. The news of De- 
catur's victory over the Macedonian 
brought a new accession of joy to the 
country. A young ofificer, who bore 
the official report of the victory to the 
capital, entered a large public assem- 
bly, escorted by two other officers, 
and presented the ensign of the Mace- ^ 

donian to Mrs. Madison, the wife of ""^- "*'"=°'"- 
the President. The assembled guests cheered and 
wept with enthusiasm, while the j'oung offi- 
^^ cer's mother and sister, who were pres- 
_ Q^ ^'^^' embraced him, delighted that he had 
1-^.^ come safely out of the battle. The year 
_^ was closed by the capture of a fourth 
man-of-war, the frigate Java. This was 




THE NAVY IN THE WAR OF iSis. 



253 




effected by the Constitution, which had now become 
famous under the nickname of "Old Ironsides." This 
ship had the fortune to win brilliant victories under 
three different commanders. 

There were other victories than these we have men- 
tioned, and some defeats, but the prowess of American 
seamen excited admiration everywhere. It was a war 
for sailors' rights, and the sailors were deeply interested 
in it. The adventurous character of American life in that 
day had developed a spirit of personal daring well suited 
to naval warfare. Such was the emulation of officers that 
in boarding an enemy's ship they actually pulled one an- 
other back in some instances, so eager was every one to 
get over the side of the hostile vessel first. One American 
seaman on the Constitution, in her battle with the Java, 
remained on deck in a dying condition until the enemy *""*"■ 
surrendered, when the poor fellow raised himself with one 
hand and gave three cheers, and, falling back, expired. 

There were many affecting examples of courage in Death of 
these contests. In the losing fight of the Chesapeake 
with the Shannon, when Captain Lawrence was car- 
ried below mortall}- wounded, he said, " Don't give 
up the ship ! " These words became a battle-cry in 
the navy, and a watchword for brave men in diffi- 
cult circumstances from that time to this. 

The exploits of a little navy, pitted against 
the greatest maritime power the world had ever ^^ 
seen, set the people wild. When the command- 
ers of successful vessels returned to port, cities lawrence. 
welcomed them with banquets. State Legislatures voted Admiration for 

the navy. 

them swords, and the General Government struck med- 
als in their honor. 




~ *%l''^"ii' 



2 34 



H J STORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 



The Essex in the xhe Essex, under Captain Porter, took the bold reso- 

Pacific. 1 r-i - 

lution of rounding Cape Horn into the Pacihc to protect 
American whalers from English cruisers. This was the 
first American ship of war in those waters, and, as the 
authorities in South America were unfriendly, Captain 
Porter was obliged to depend on her captures for sup- 
plies. Here he maintained himself for more than a year, 
taking English ships and recapturing American whalers 
that had been taken, until, in March, 1813, the remarkable 
career of the Essex was closed by her capture by two 
British ships in the ofifing at Valparaiso, after a severe 
conflict. 
Privateers in the Xhe skiUfuI seamaushio and bold handling of the 

War of i8ij. ^ _ ^ 

American ships during this war introduced something 
like a new sort of naval warfare. Unimportant as were 
these naval victories in proportion to the power of the 
British navv. they tended more than any other event of 
the war to secure for our seamen equal rights on the 
ocean. Besides men-of-war, there were many pri\-ate 
vessels fitted out under authority of the government as 
privateers. These scoured the seas, and captured or 
destroyed above sixteen hundred British ships. The 
seamen on them fought with the same splendid courage 
as their brethren in the navy. The swiftest of these 
privateers were of the kind known as *' Baltimore clip- 
Ders." 




THE ARMY IN THE IV A R OF lSl3. 255 

CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE ARMY IN THE WAR OF l8l2. 

General Winchester, also a veteran of the Revolu- Harmon ap- 

pointed to com- 

tion, was appointed to succeed General Hull, after the mand the North- 
latter had surrendered Detroit. But the Kentuckians, ^"^ "^ ^^"^^' 
who formed the most important element in the North- 
western arm}', remembered the surrender of Detroit by 
one superannuated officer, and they did not wish an- 
other. With that independence of strict discipline 
which was as characteristic of them as their courage, 
they declared their unwillingness to serve under any- 
body but Harrison, whose vigor at Tippecanoe had 
won him the favor of the Western country. The gov- 
ernment could not do otherwise than yield to the 
wishes of the Kentuckians. 

Winchester was put in command of a part of Har- The defeat on the 
rison's army, but the same ill-luck attended him that 
befell the other Revolutionary officers who were brought 
forth in old age to command in this war. Winchester 
was defeated on the river Raisin, in Michigan, in Janu- 
ary, 1813. He surrendered his men to the British gen- 
eral. Proctor, a very brutal man, who, to his eternal 
infamy, left the wounded Americans to be massacred 
and plundered by the Indians of his army. The Ameri- 
cans were roused to revenge, and the war-cry of the 
enraged Western troops became, " Remember the river 
Raisin!" 

In the spring of 1813, General Proctor, with a great siege of Fort 

Meigs by Proctor 

force of English soldiers and Indians under Tecumseh, and Tecumseh, 

1813. 



256 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Croghan's gallant 
defense of Fort 
Stephenson, 1813. 




laid siege to Harrison's little army in 
Fort Meigs. When Proctor, whose 
force was much stronger than Har- 
rison's, sent a demand for the surren- 
der of the fort, Harrison answered, 
" Tell General Proctor that, if he shall 
take the fort, it will be under circum- 
stances that will do him more honor 
than a thousand surrenders." Harri- 
son and his troops contrived to thwart 
every endeavor to capture the fort 
until re-enforcements arrived, when the 
enemy gave up the siege and retired. 
In the summer following. Fort Stephenson, a weak 
stockade with a single six-pound gun, was brilliantly 
defended by a young Kentuck)' officer named Croghan, 
with only a hundred and sixty men, against a force 
many times as strong, commanded by General Proctor. 
Harrison ordered Croghan, who was but twenty-one 
years of age, to abandon the fort. But Croghan, like 
other Kentuckians of the time, cared more for courage 
than for subordination, and, knowing the fort to be im- 
portant, he resolved to hold it. The English tried to 
persuade him to surrender, to avoid the massacre of his 
garrison at the hands of the Indians, to which the answer 
was, that when the fort should be given up there would 
not be found a man alive in it. Croghan shifted his six- 
pounder from one angle to another, to give the impres- 
sion that he had several heavy guns. When the fort 
was assaulted at its weakest part, the Kentucky riflemen 
opened a deadly fire. But the brave English soldiers 
at length reached the ditch, and began to chop down 



THE ARMY IN THE WAR OE 1S12. 



257 



Preparation 
Lake Erie. 



the Stockade. The six-pounder, which had been double- 
loaded with grape-shot and slugs, and concealed where 
it covered the whole ditch, was suddenly fired. Hardly 
a man of the assailing party escaped, and the English 
army retreated the next morning. During the night, 
Croghan's men, not daring to open the gate, let down 
water to the wounded Englishmen outside, and at length, 
by means of a trench, brought them in and cared for them. 

In order that Harrison's proposed expedition against 
Canada might succeed, it became necessary to gain con- 
trol of Lake Erie. Both sides made the utmost exer- 
tions in building ships in the wilderness. American 
mechanics were brought from Philadelphia on 
sleighs. Oliver Hazard Perry, an ofificcr but twen- 
ty-seven years of age, had charge of the American 
preparations from the beginning. 

A little fleet was launched on Lake Erie at 
length, and its officers and men were anxious to 
rival the glory of the American ships at sea. In 
the battle of Lake Erie, fought on the 15th of Sep- 
tember, 181 3, Commodore Perry hung up for his signal 
"Don't give up the ship!" the dving words of Law- Battle of Lake 

Erie, 1813. 

rence. When his flag-ship was riddled and disabled by 

the enemv, he took down his signal and got into a 

small boat, and was rowed to another vessel, standing 

upright while the enemy 

was raining shot about 

him. Reaching the ship 

Niagara, he sailed down 

on the British line and 

broke it, and at length 

compelled the whole fleet 





258 



HISTORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 



Harrison's ad- 
vance. 




Battle of the 
Thames. 



Death of 
Tecumseh. 



to surrender. " We have met the enemy, and they are 
ours — two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one 
sloop," Perry wrote to General Harrison at the close 
of the battle. One of the most effective devices used 
by Perry in this action was the firing of bits of scrap- 
iron sewed up in leathern bags. By this means he was 
able to tear the enemy's sails to pieces, and leave his 
ships helpless. 

Perr)-'s victory opened the way for a forward move- 
ment by Harrison's army. In Harrison's general orders, 
when he set out for Canada after PerrN-'s victory, he 
said : " Kentuckians, remember the river Raisin ! but re- 
member it only while victory is suspended. The re- 
venge of a soldier can not be gratified upon a fallen 
enemy." 

Harrison retook Detroit, crossed into Canada; and 
pursued Proctor's army, which he overtook at length 
on the river Thames. The two forces were about equal, 
but Proctor formed his army in open order, as is usual 
in fighting against Indians. Harrison took advantage 
of the weakness of the British line, and ordered his cav- 
alry to break through the center and get in the rear. 
This was done at a dash, and the English army was soon 
utterlv routed. Proctor, afraid of falling into the hands 
of soldiers who remembered the river Raisin, saved him- 
self by fleeing in a carriage, and then by leaving his car- 
riage and taking to the woods. 

The brave Tecumseh was killed in resisting the first 
charge of the cavalry. He was one of the ablest men 
produced by the Indian race, and it is to his credit that 
he never countenanced the barbarous custom of tortur- 
ing prisoners. The battle of the Thames, and the death 



THE ARMY IN THE WAJ? OF l8is. 



259 



of the warlike Tecumseh, broke up the confederacy of 
the Indian tribes, and brought peace to the frontier. 

Though Harrison and his Westerners succeeded so 
well in invading the sparsely settled Upper Canada, the 
attempted invasion of Canada to the eastward was no 
easy task, and it proved a failure under the lead of the 
feeble old generals who had survived from the Revolu- 
tion. But the rise of young gen- 
erals — Brown, Scott, and Ripley 
— to command changed the as- 
pect of affairs, and an invasion of 
Canadian territory was made in 
the summer of 18 14. Fort Erie 
was taken, and the battle of Chip- 
pewa was won by the Ameri- 
cans early in July. The battle 
of Lundy's Lane was stubbornly 
contested, and lasted till mid- 
night. The Americans were left in possession of the 
field, but the next day they retreated. Be- 
fore winter set in, the Americans retired 
to their own side of the Niagara River. 
In March, 18 14, Napoleon was con- 
quered and banished to the island of Elba. 
England, having now peace in Europe, was 
free to send re-enforcements to Canada, and 
in this same summer of 18 14 the English 
entered the United States, by Lake Cham- 
plain, the way so often traveled by French 
and English expeditions in the old French 
wars and in the Revolution. Sir George 
Prevost, the British commander, had made 






26o 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



United State: 
1814. 




MACDONOUGH. 



English attempt his preparations carefullv, and on the iith of Septem- 

\n invarfp the 

ber, 1814, a sharp engagement between the advanc- 
ing English army and American troops took place at 
Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain, while the little squad- 
ron of British and American craft were fighting on 
the water. 

The result of the naval battle decided the fate of that 
fought on land. The English vessels were superior in 
men and guns to the Americans, but the fate of the 
doubtful conflict was won by the skillful management of 
Commodore Macdonough, who commanded the Ameri- 
can fleet. The English squadron was at length com- 
pelled to surrender a part of their vessels and to get the 
rest awa}- as quickly as possible. So severe was the 
fight, that not a sound mast was left in either squad- 
ron — the masts were splinters and the sails were rags. 
As soon as the English general learned that the fleet 
had been beaten, he drew o£f his men, and that night 
made a precipitate retreat to Canada. 
Battle of Bia- But the EugHsh invasion, b}' way of Chesapeake Bay, 

densburg : fall of 

Washington, 1814. was more successful. In August, 1814, the British landed 

in iMar}land an army stronger than 
any that could be brought to meet 
it. On the 24th of that month a battle 
was fought at Bladensburg, which 
resulted in a victor}' for the English, 
who entered Washington, and burned 
the Capitol and most of the public 
buildings. The same force that had 
taken Washington attacked Baltimore 

by land and water, but the vigorous defense of that 

place forced the British to retire. 




THE ARMY IN THE WAR OF l8l3. 26 1 

It was during this attack that the song called "The ThesongofT 

Star-Spangled 

Star-Spangled Banner" was written. Francis S. Key, the Banner." 
author of the song, had gone to the British squadron, 
with the consent of the President, to secure the release of 
a friend detained as a prisoner. Key was himself detained 
during the attack on Baltimore ; and when the firing had 
ceased, uncertain of the result, he waited for the daylight, 
to see which flag floated at Fort McHenry. When he 
saw that the Stars and Stripes were still there, he wrote 
the verses on the back of an old letter. They were soon 
after printed, and, as they suited the patriotic feeling of 
the times, they were soon sung all over the country. 

It is a noteworthy fact in the history of the flag that changes in the 
the " Star-Spangled Banner " of Key's time had fifteen 
stripes and fifteen stars. The old flag of thirteen stripes 
and as many stars had been changed in 1795 to 
fifteen of each, in view of the accession of Ver- 
mont and Kentucky to the Union. But in 1818 
the rule was adopted which still holds — the stripes 
were permanently reduced to thirteen, to represent 
the original States, and the stars were henceforth 
to be as many as there should be States at the time. between 1: 

The persuasions of Tecumseh and his brother, 
the Prophet, had raised up a war party among the Creek w 
Indians, who dwelt mostly in southern Alabama. A 
large part of the nation, imder the lead of a half-breed 
chief named Weathersford, or " Red Eagle," made war 
on their white neighbors and on the Indians of their 
own tribe who were disposed to be friendly to the 
United States. British agents supplied these Indians 
with arms. Weathersford, like Tecumseh, had a prophet 
to help him, who had been initiated into the office by 




262 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Overthrow of the 
Creeks ; rise of 
General Jackson, 



Jackson's victory 
at New Orleans, 
January S, 1815. 



Tecumseh's brother. Weathersford also imitated Te- 
cumseh in discouraging the barbarities of the Indians, 
but he could not restrain them, 'and cruel outrages of 
torture and massacre took place. 

General Andrew Jackson, then an officer of the Ten- 
nessee militia, led a force into southern Alabama, and, 
after overcoming the greatest difficulties and fighting 
many bloody battles, he broke the power of the Creeks, 
so that Weathersford himself entered Jackson's tent and 
surrendered. This was in April, 1814. Jackson, from 
being a commander of volunteers, was now made a 
major-general, and put in command of the troops in the 
Southwest. 

Florida was at this time in the possession of Spain, 
which was at peace with the United States. But that 
power was secretly in sympathy with England, and 
English troops made Pensacola, in Florida, a base of 
operations against Mobile. With his usual fiery zeal, 
Jackson marched into Spanish territory, captured Pensa- 
cola, and dislodged the British. He then retired. 

Jackson hastened to New Orleans, which was soon 
threatened by a large British force. With an energy 
unsurpassed perhaps in modern history, he formed an 
army out of the men and material within his reach, and 

built defenses against 
the British approach. 
He formed companies 
of free colored men, 
and he even took the 
convicts out of prison to 
make soldiers of them. 
After several prelimina- 




AiteMiMiAflMaiHtt 



7-HE ARMY IN THE iVAR OF iSll. 



263 




ry battles, the English endeavored to carry Jackson's 
works by storm on the 8th of January, 18 15. But Jack- 
son's preparations were so thorough, that the enemy 
was repulsed with a frightful loss of twenty-six hun- 
dred men. The Americans lost but eight killed and 
thirteen wounded. Sir Edward Pakenham, the British 
commander, was killed, and the attack on New Orleans 
was abandoned. 

When this battle was fought, peace had already been 
made, but the news had not yet reached this country. 
The treaty of peace was signed at Ghent, in Belgium, on 
the 24th of December, 18 14. By the terms of this treaty. Peace of ( 
neither Great Britain nor the United States gained any- 
thing. The right of searching American vessels was not 
mentioned in the treaty ; but the war had shown Great 
Britain that the right to search could no longer be main- 
tained against a spirited nation, and American ships have 
never been searched from that time to this. 

The war had caused a great deal of suffering and suffering 

.by the wa 

misery in this country, by the derangement of business, 
the destruction of property, and the loss of life. The 
news of the peace was hailed with delight. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

EXPAN'SION OF THE UNION. 



Let us now go back to the period immediately fol- Vermont admit- 

. . . ted as the four- 

lowing the adoption of the Constitution, and trace the teenth state, 1797 
birth of new States. The boundaries of the old States 



264 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



had been fixed by ro3'al grants and by decisions made 
in England. But, as soon as the Revolution broke out, 
English control was at an end, and the spread of the 
Revolutionary spirit began to break down the authority 
of some of the States in parts of their dominions. 

Vermont, i79>. The peoplc of what is now called Vermont had set- 

tled on their lands under grants made by the Governor 
of New Hampshire, supposing themselves to be in that 
State. From this fact the country was called " The New 
Hampshire Grants." But, as New York set up a claim 
to all lands west of the Connecticut River, and as the 
royal governor in New York wished to get rich from 
the fees allowed to him for granting lands, a claim was 
set up that the country west of the Connecticut and 
north of Massachusetts belonged to New York, and this 
was upheld by the authorities in England. But the peo- 
ple of the New Hampshire Grants were a race of hardy 
pioneers. They refused to pay for their lands a second 
time, and made successful opposition to the officers of 
New York. When the Revolution broke out, the 
" Green Mountain Boys " set up as an independent 
State, and called it Vermont- — a name derived from the 
French for " Green Mountain." They even annexed the 
adjacent parts of New York and New Hampshire. By 
1791 all their difficulties with other States were settled, 
and Vermont was admitted to the Union as the first 
addition to the " Old Thirteen." 

Kentucky, 1792. Kcutucky was a part of \'irginia, but the continued 

Indian wars after the Revolution made it of great impor- 
tance that the people west of the mountains should have 
a State government nearer than that at Richmond. After 
much trouble and many failures, Kentucky secured a 




GENTLEMAN'S RIOING- 

DRE6a, EARLV PART OF 

THE CENTURY. 



EXPANSION OF THE UNION. 



265 




separation from Virginia, and in February, 1792, the 
new State was admitted to the Union. 

The people of this country have generally emigrated t 
in pretty straight lines to the westward. As Virginians 
broke over the mountains into Kentucky, so North Caro- 
linians crossed into the valleys of Tennessee. The Ten- 
nessee settlers also had trouble with the parent State, 
and at one time set up a new State without authority, 
giving it the name of Franklin. This was given up, and 
the people returned to their allegiance to North Caro- *■ 
lina until that State ceded its lands west of the mountains 
to the Union after the adoption of the Federal Constitu- 
tion. This region, with other Southern territory, was set 
up in 1790 as a territorial government, and in 1796 was 
admitted into the Union, with the name of Tennessee. 

These two States, Kentucky and Tennessee, had ohio, iso^ 
slaves. But the Ordinance of 1787, as we have seen 
in a previous chapter, did not allow slaveholding in the 
territory north of the Ohio River; so that all the States 
formed out of that territory were free States from the 
beginning. In the two years following the passage of 
this ordinance, twenty thousand people made their way 
down the Ohio River. But the horrible Indian wars 
checked the settlement of the country until after Wayne's 
great victory. Ohio was admitted to the Union Feb- 
ruary 19, 1803.* 

It was more than nine years before another State was lou 
admitted. In 1812 the southern part of the great terri- 
tory bought from France was admitted, under the name 
of Louisiana — the name at first given to the whole. 




TURBAN HEAD-DRESS, 

WORN EARLY IN THIS 

CENTURr. 



This is tlie correct date, according to late investigations. 



266 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Rapid expansion 
after the war. 
Indiana, 1816. 
Mississippi. 1817. 
Illinois, 1818. 
Alabama, i8ig. 
Maine. i8}o. 




Debate o\ 
applicatio 
Missouri. 



State of the 
slavery question. 



Thus, when the War of 1812 began, the old Union of 
thirteen States had increased to eighteen. 

The second war with England, and particularly the 
naval battles and the crushing defeat which Jackson in- 
flicted on the British troops at New Orleans, made the 
United States respected in Europe as it had never been 
before. Emigrants began to flock to America. The 
peace with the Indians caused the Mississippi Valley, 
then called " the Far West," to fill up rapidly. In more 
than thirty years after the Revolution, only five States 
were added to the Union ; but the next six States were 
admitted in six successive years — Indiana, next west of 
Ohio, in 1816. The defeat of the Creeks had opened the 
Southwest ; and the new State of Mississippi, between 
Tennessee and Louisiana, was admitted in 1817. Illinois, 
west of Indiana, was admitted in 1818; and Alabama 
filled the gap between Mississippi and Georgia in 1819. 
In 1820 the District of Maine, long attached to Massa- 
chusetts, though separated from it geographically, was 
admitted as an independent State. 

By 1820, therefore, all the territory east of the Missis- 
sippi, except the extreme northern portion, now included 
in Michigan and Wisconsin, had been made into States, 
and the State of Louisiana had been made out of the 
territory which had been bought from France. But, 
by this time, a new State on the west of the Missis- 
sippi River was knocking at the door of the Union. 
This was Missouri. Over the admission of this State 
there was a great debate, lasting through three sessions 
of Congress. 

The cause of this debate, which was one of the most 
important in our history, was the fact that Missouri pro- 



EXPANSION OF THE UNION. 



267 



posed to come in as a slave State. The bringing of slaves 
into the United States had been forbidden in 1808. The 
States north of the southern line of Pennsylvania had all, 
before 1820, taken measures to free their slaves. The 
States south of the southern line of Pennsylvania, having 
much of their wealth in slaves, and cultivating crops that 
seemed to require their labor, had by this time mostly 
given up the thought of freeing their slaves. So that 
there were now two classes of States in the Union : free 
States and States having slaves. Each of these divisions 
of the Union was afraid that the other would get control 
of the country. It had usually 
been the custom, in admitting 
new States, to bring in one from 
the North and one from the 
South, to keep the balance good. 





268 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The Missou 



But Missouri brought up a new question. According 
to the Ordinance of 1787, the States north of the Ohio 
had all come in as free States ; but those to the south of 
that river had been allowed to enter as slaveholding 
States. The French province of Louisiana had been pur- 
chased as slaveholding territory, and the southernmost 
part of it had been admitted as a slave State. But now 
the question arose whether all the great region bought 
from France was to be added to the Southern side of 
the scale. Missouri was west of the Mississippi, and 
so far north as to seem to break into the line of free 
States. 

Most of the people at the North wished all the new 
territory made into free States ; most of the people at 
the South wished to have it all open to settlement by 
Southern people with slaves. The question was finally 
decided by letting Missouri come in as a slave State, but 
slavery was at the same time forever forbidden in the 
rest of the territory north of the southern line of Mis- 
souri. Thus all the territory to the north and west of 
that State would be free. This was known as the Mis- 
souri Compromise. It was adopted in 1820, and Missouri 
was finally admitted in 182 1. Henry Clay, the most 
famous of the orators and political leaders of the day, 
was very active in promoting this measure. 

"u™^^""^' ^^^ " ^'"^ Thirteen " had now grown to twenty-four. 

The expansion of the nation in population and wealth 

th of popu- was very rapid. In 1820 there were more than nine 
and a half million people in America. This was about 
three times as many as there were when the Revo- 
lutionary War was ended. 




FROM MONROE TO VAN BUREN. 



269 



CHAPTER XLV. 

FROM MONROE TO VAN BUREN. — RISE OF WHIGS AND 
DEMOCRATS. 




A GREAT part of the expansion of the Union by 
the admission of new States, described in the preced- 
ing chapter, took place in the presidency of James 
Monroe, who was chosen to that office in 18 16. Mon- 
roe was born in Virginia in 1754. As soon as he 
had graduated at William and Mary College, in ^ 
1776, he joined the Revolutionary arm}'. He dis- 
tinguished himself in several battles. He was min- "' ''''^ 
ister to France and to England, and was Secretary 
of State when Madison was President. Monroe was a 
man of even temper, with very little party feelinsj, and Monroe's presi- 

dency; the era of 

with the greatest desire to be just and to act wiselv. good feeling. 
He was very popular, and his administration was called 
" the era of good feeling." The Federal party being 
by this time almost extinct, Monroe was re-elected in 
1820 without any opposing candidate. 

Next to the Missouri Compromise, of which we have Purchase of Fior- 

, . 1 ■ 1 1 1 , , ■''* from Spain, 

spoken m the precedmg chapter, the most remai'kable ,821. 
event of Monroe's administration was the purchase of 
the Peninsula of Florida from Spain. French Protest- 
ants had made a settlement in Florida in 1564, but they 
were nearly all cruelly put to death by Spaniards in 
1565, in which year the Spaniards founded St 
Augustine, the oldest town in the present United "^ 
States. In the Treaty of 1763, Spain ceded Flor- 
ida to England. In 1783 it was ceded back to 

SPANISH STANDARD. 




270 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Spain. Its purchase by our government was completed 
in 1 82 1, and General Jackson, who had seized part of 
Florida during the War of 18 12, and again in the Semi- 
nole War of 1818, having both times to relinquish it, 
was now sent to receive the new province from the 
Spanish governor. 

In 1823 the countries in America to the south of us, 
which had been colonies of Spain, were striving to estab- 
lish themselves as independent republics, and it was 
feared that an alliance of European nations would help 
Spain to subdue them. President Monroe, therefore, 
sent a message to Congress, in which he announced 

what has always 
i ' since been known 

as " The Monroe 
Doctrine." This 
doctrine was, that 
the United States 
would object to 
any attempt on the 
part of European 
powers to " extend 
their system " of interference to " any part of this hemi- 
sphere." This was a declaration of independence for 
the whole of America. The United States still main- 
tains the principle as stated by Monroe. 

Monroe, who went out of office in 1825, was the last 
President connected with the Revolution. After leaving 
the presidency, he was very poor. He died in New 
York on the fourth day of July, 1831. He was the third 
President to die on the anniversary of the Declaration 
of Independence. 




MONROE'S HOME AT MONTPELIER, 



FROM MONROE TO VAN BUREN. 



271 




For want of any issue between 
them, both the old parties may be 
said to have gone to pieces, and new 
ones were not yet formed. There 
were four candidates for the presi- 
dency in 1824: Crawford, Jackson, 
Adams, and Clay. No one of these 
got a majority of the electoral votes, 
and the duty of electing a president 
devolved on the House of Repre- 
sentatives, which elected Adams. 

John Quincy Adams, the sixth 
President, was the son of John Ad- 
ams, the second President. He was 

born in Braintree, Mass., :n 1767. He studied in France sketch 
and Holland, and spent some time in Sweden, Denmark, 
Russia, and England, while yet a boy. He graduated 
at Harvard College when he was twenty years old, and 
studied law. He was at various times American min- 
ister at the courts of Holland, England, Prussia, and 
Russia, and was one of the commissioners to negotiate 
the treaty with England at the close of the War of 
1812. He was Secretary of State in Monroe's Cabinet, 

and President of 
the United States 
from 1825 to 1829. 

The administra- Admini= 

of the SI 

tion or Adams was Adams. 
a stormy and un- 
popular one. He 
was extremely hon- 
est and faithful, 



'f J- Q- 




ADAMS HOUSES AT BRAINTREE, MASS., BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN 
ADAMS AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



272 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Election of An 
drew Jackson 




but, like his father, John Adams, he had no gift for win- 
ning friends. He could not bend to the people ; his cold 
manners and his disregard for the 
opinions of others made him ene- 
mies, who succeeded in preventing 
his re-election. When John Quincy 
Adams quitted the presidency he 
did not leave public life, but sat in 
the lower house of Congress from 
1831 to 1848, and this was the most 
brilliant part of his career. At 
eighty years of age he was still 
called "The old man eloquent."' 
He died in the Capitol at Wash- 
ington in 184S. 

In 1828 Andrew Jackson, of 
Tennessee, was chosen President, 
taking office in March, 1829. He was re-elected in 1832, 
and held office in all for eight years. Jackson was born 
in North CaroHna in 1767. He joined the Revolution- 
ary army in South Carolina when he was but fourteen 
years old. He studied law and settled in Nashville, 
Tennessee. He was a member of the United States 
Senate and judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee 
before he became distinguished as a soldier. His 
military achievements are told in a previous chap- 
ter. He was President of the United States from 
1829 to 1837. As the first President that had risen 
from the ranks of the common people, he was 
\ very popular, and was supposed to represent the 
American ideas of the time. He was called " Old 
Hickory " by his admirers. 



NDREW JACKSON. 



JACKSON'S XrME. 



FROM MONROE TO VAN BUREN. 



273 




Jackson was a man sincerely patriotic and honest, character 
but self-willed and of a violent temper. He was the first istration. 
President who turned out of government office the men 
who were opposed to him, appointing- his own friends 
in their places. He vetoed a great many acts of Con- 
gress. He succeeded in 
breaking down the United 
States Bank, which, up to 
that time, had kept the pub- 
lic moneys. He vetoed al- 
most all the measures pro- 
posed for the promotion of 
roads and other " internal 
improvements " by the Gen- 

" THE HERMITAGE ' 

eral Government, holding 
that the Federal Government had no right to tax the 
people for such enterprises. Jackson set his face against 
the doctrine advanced by John C. Calhoun, of South 
Carolina, in his time, that a State could "nullify" a law 
of the United States. The business of the government 
with other nations was conducted during Jackson's ad- 
ministration with great spirit and abilitv, and the country 
was respected abroad. Jackson died in 1845. 

As the moderate and peaceful administration of Mon- Rise of the 
roe helped forward the dissolution of the old Federal and cratlc parties." 
Republican parties, so the administration of a man of 
strong party feehng and of stormy temper like Jackson 
made new party divisions. Jackson loved his friends 
and hated all opponents. The country came to be di- 
vided into Jackson men and anti-Jackson men. The 
Jackson men claimed to succeed to the old Democratic- 
Republican party, and, retaining one of the names by 



2 74 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




C. CALHOUN 



Differences be- 
t\veenthe parties. 



which it was known, they were 
called " Democrats." Those 
who were opposed to Jackson 
were called " Whigs," a name 
formerly applied in England 
to the party opposed to the 
arbitrary power of the king. 
The principal feature of Amer- 
Run politics for about twenty 
vears was the rivalry of the 
Whig and Democratic parties. 
The main differences be- 
tween the Whig party and the 
Democratic were : 

I. That the Whigs advo- 
cated the re-establishment of the United States Bank ; 
the Democrats opposed it. 

2. The Whigs were in favor of the building of 
roads and canals at the expense of the United States. 
The Democrats 

did not believe ^^ 

that the gov- 
ernment of the 
Union ■ should 
undertake " in- 
ternal improve- 
ments," as roads 
and canals were 
then called. 

3. The Whigs generally wished to increase the pow- 
er of the Federal Government ; the Democrats were 
more in favor of what were called States' rights. 




HOME OF CALHOUN 



RISE OF WHIGS AXD DEMOCRATS. 



275 



The Democrats thought that, whatever power the Con- 
stitution did not expressly give to the General Govern- 
ment, could only be exercised 
by the States. 

The great leaders of the 
Whig party were Henry Clay, 
of Kentucky, and Daniel Web- 
ster, of Massachusetts. These 
were two of the greatest ora- 
tors the country has ever 
known. Another orator ot 
the first rank, John C. Cal- 
houn, of South Carolina, was 
on the Democratic side. He 
believed in the power of a 
State to " nullify " a law of 
the nation. But the Demo- 
cratic party generally agreed 
with Jackson, that the laws of the United States were The great party 

leaders, Clay, 

supreme until the courts decided them unconstitutional, webster, and 
Clay, Calhoun, and Webster are often spoken of to- 
gether. They were the three great statesmen of what 
is sometimes known as " the compromise period " of 

American histo- 
ry. Henry Clay 
was born in Vir- 
ginia in 1777. He 
was a poor boy, 
and gained his 
education with 
difficulty. He 
settled in Ken- 





BIRTHPLACE OF 



276 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




tucky as a young man, and long 
represented that State in the 
House of Representatives and 
the Senate. John C. Calhoun 
was born in South Carolina in 
1782, and was graduated at Yale 
College. Clay and Calhoun were 
both bold advocates of the war 
with England in 18 12. Webster, 
who was born in the same year 
with Calhoun, entered Congress 
in 1813, during the war. From 
this time these three men gradu- 
ally came to the front as the 
greatest masters of the art of debate the country had 
known. Calhoun was a member of Monroe's Cabinet, 
Cla}' of John Ouincv Adams's, Webster of Harrison and 
Fillmore's. But they were all 
three greatest in Congress. 
Each of them desired to be 
President, but all were disap- 
pointed. Calhoun was Vice- 
President for eight years, from 
1825 to 1833. Clay was active 
in bringing about the Missouri 
Compromise, which Calhoun 
favored. Later than this Cal- 
houn became the chief advocate 
of the doctrine that the States 
were sovereign, and that the 
Union was a compact of sover- 
eign States. Clay and Web- 




DANIEL WEBSTER. 



RISE OF WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS. 



277 



ster, on the other hand, were advocates of the authority 
of the Union. Clay was the author of the Compromise 
of 1850, which Webster favored. Calhoun died in 1850; 
Clay and Webster in 1852. 

In 18^6 Martin Van Buren, of New York, was nomi- Election of 

Van Buren, 1836. 

nated by the Democrats and elected President. He fol- 
lowed the policy of Jackson, but in a gentler way. He 
did not veto any bills passed by Congress. Van Buren 
was born at Kinderhook, New York, in 1782. He lived 
more than twenty 3'ears after his retirement from the 
presidency, dying in 1862. 



|y>f..^ 




CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE STEAMBOAT, THE RAILROAD, AND THE TELEGRAPH. 

Soon after 1800, certain changes began in ways of Modes oftravei at 

» _ ^ -' the beginning of 

travel that have made modern life different from that of the igth century. 

all preceding ages. Men in old times had jogged along 

day after da}' and week after week to make a journey of 

hundreds of miles on horseback, or they were jolted over 

bad roads in stage-wagons or carriages. Pack-horses or 

heavy wagons carried all the freight that went by land. 

Boats, rowed or pushed with poles, went slowly up and 



278 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Improvement in 
ships made by 
Americans. Bal- 
timore clippers. 

Fulton's first 
steamboat, 1807. 



The Er 
other c 



down the rivers, carrying passen- 
gers and freight. Periaugers, with 
oars and sails, and other small ves- 
sels, plied up and down the coast, 
and all the ships at sea were pro- 
pelled by sails. 

In ships our people made great 
improvements. The " Baltimore 
clipper," a schooner with raking 
masts — that is, masts that slanted 
backward — was famous for its speed. 
Our frigates gained advantages in 
the War of 1812 by being better sailers than the English 
men-of-war. At a later period the American " clipper- 
built ships" were the swiftest sailing-vessels in the world. 
After the invention of the steam-engine in England, 
attempts were made in France, Scotland, and America 
to build boats that would go by 
"" steam. But Robert Fulton, an 

American, built the first really 
successful steamboat. This boat, 
the Clermont, was launched in 
1807, and ran between New 
York and Albany, to the great 
wonder of all who saw her. 
Steamboats soon after took the 
place of keel-boats on the West- 
ern rivers, and they greatly aided in the rapid develop- 
ment of settlements in the new country. 

Steamboats served for commerce and travel where 
there were rivers and lakes. But how should the traffic 
on the Western rivers and the Great Lakes be connected 




/ 



STEAMBOAT, RAILROAD, AND TELEGRAPH. 



279 



with the rivers east of the Alleghany Mountains and the 
sea? Canals, long used in Europe, were thought of for 
this purpose, and Washington was much interested in a 
proposed canal from the Potomac to the Ohio River. 
But the first great canal in this countr}' was that from 
the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The chief promoter of 
this work was De Witt Clinton, Governor of New York. 
It was eight years in construction. It was begun on the 
4th of July, 1 817, and in 1825 its completion was cele- 
brated by a procession of boats from Lake Erie to the 
ocean, where Governor De Witt Clinton poured a keg 
of Lake Erie water into the sea, as a sign of their union. 
This canal, by opening a trade with the West, made 
New York the greatest city of the United States. 

But, for the more mountainous countrv of the Middle The " 

Road. 

States, a great " National Road " for wagons was planned 
and built from western Mary- 
land as far as the western 
part of Indiana. The exten- 
sion of railroads soon ren- 
dered it of no importance as 
a national work. 

But the greatest change of 
all, in the life of Americans, 
was made by the railway, 
which was introduced from 
England. The first railroads were merely tracks of iron Raiiro. 
bars, on which little cars, loaded with coal, were drawn 
from the mines. The first railway in the United States 
was but two miles long, and was used only for haul- 
ing stone. The cars were drawn by horses. The first 




HE FIRST RAILROAD PASSENGER-CAR ! 



ds intro- 
ibout 1830 




FIRST STEAM 

PASSENGER-TRAlt 

IN AMERICA. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Invention of the 
electric tele- 
graph. 



First elect 
telegraph. 



passenger-train in America was run on the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad in 1830, but the cars were drawn by horses 
the first year. The extension of railways was very rapid ; 
thc}- changed America more than an}- other country, 
because here the distances are so great. We have almost 
as many miles of railway as all the world besides. 

The first passenger-cars were merely stage-coaches on 
the rails, and in other countries they still keep something 
of this form. In America large, airy cars for passengers 
were early introduced, and the parlor-car, the sleeping- 
car, the hotel-car, and the dining-car are all of American 
origin, and are little used elsewhere. The street tram- 
way, or horse-railroad, and the elevated railwaj's for 
rapid travel in cities, were first used in this country. 

The electric telegraph, in its present practical shape, 
was the invention of an American artist, S. F. B. Morse. 
In old times people sent messages by 
objects shown on high ground, by 
lights displayed at night, or by bon- 
fires kindled on the hills. Even the 
wild Indians sent intelligence across 
the plains by waving a blanket over 
a fire and thus making a " smoke- 
signal." In 1835 Morse set up and 
worked a telegraphic wire by elec- 
tricity. But it was seven years later 
before he could persuade Congress 
to appropriate money to set up the 
first line. 
During the years of struggle to get his invention 
tried, Morse was so extremely poor as often to be with- 
out food for a whole day together. In 1842 Morse had 




STEAMBOAT, RAILROAD, AMD TELEGRAPH. 




gone to his lodgings in despair on the last night of the 
session of Congress. There were a large number of bills 
in advance of the one for promoting the telegraph. But 
the next morning the daughter of Commissioner Ells- 
worth called at his lodgings and informed him that a bill 
had passed granting $30,000 to build an experimental tele- 
graph line. When the first line was built from Washing- 
ton to Baltimore, in 1844, this young lady was allowed 
to dictate the first dispatch, which she did, sending the 
words, "What hath God wrought!" The first public 
news dispatch brought to Washington the intelligence 
that James K. Polk had been nominated for President. 
Silas Wright, a Senator, who was put in nomination 
for Vice-President at the same time, sent a message de- 
clining the nomination. But the members of the con- 
vention would not believe that news could go to Wash- 
ington and back in so short a time, and so they waited 
to hear by other means before they would believe that 
the message was genuine. 

The introduction of the railway and the invention change in mode 

of living producei 

of the telegraph have completely changed the condi- by railroad and 
tions of our life. In former times it was weeks after a ^ ^^^^'^ 
presidential election before the result could be gener- 
ally known. So wide is our country to-day that, if intel- 
ligence had to be carried, as formerl}-, by stage-coaches 
and post-bovs on horseback, it would take months for 
an important event to be known in remote regions of 
the countr3\ Now, ever}' important bit of news is known 
from end to end of the country in a few hours. Rail- 
roads, too, have made distant places seem near together, 
and distributed the comforts of civilization to the most 
remote parts of the country. 




282 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. — BEGINNING OF THE 
MEXICAN WAR. 



The "hardti: 
of 1837. 



Sketch of Ha 
son's life. 



During the administration of Van Buren, various 
causes brought on severe financial distress in 1837. The 
" hard times " were attributed by the people to the 
hostility of Van Buren to the 
banks. 

In 1840 General William 
Henry Harrison was nominated 
by the Whigs against Van Bu- 
ren. The canvass of that year 
was one of wild excitement. 
The Whigs, to please the popu- 
lar feeling of the time, boasted 
that their candidate lived in a 
log-cabin and drank hard cider. 
They drew log-cabins on wheels 
in their processions. It is 

WILLIAM H. HARRISON. , , , , . f * 

known in the history 01 Amer- 
ican politics as the " Log-cabin and Hard-cider Cam- 
paign." Harrison was triumphantly elected, and was 
inaugurated amid wild rejoicings. But he died in one 
month after the beginning of his term. 

Harrison was born in Charles City County, Virginia, 
in 1773, and was a son of Benjamin Harrison, Governor 
of Virginia. He was educated at Hampden-Sidney Col- 
lege, and entered the army as an ensign in 1791. Harri- 
son was aide-de-camp to General Wayne in his campaign 




ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 



283 



in Ohio, and was afterward Secretary of the Northwest 
Territory, delegate in Congress, the first Governor of 
Indiana Territory, and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. 
His selection for the presidency was due to the fame 
won in his conduct of the war against Tecumseh, and 
his admirable and fortunate career in the second war 
against England. When nominated for the presidency, 
he held the humble office of clerk to the county court. 

The Vice-President who had been elected at the same 
time with Harrison was John Tyler, who was born in 
Virginia in 1790, and who had been a member of Con- 
gress and Governor of his native State. On the death 
of Harrison, Tyler succeeded to the presidency, accord- 
ing to the Constitution. He did not sympathize with 
the views of his party regarding the bank question, and, 
when Congress passed a bill for 
its re-establishment, he vetoed the 
measure. This act brought on him 
the anger of the Whigs and a sus- 
picion of bad faith. His whole 
administration was passed in dis- 
sension with the party that elect- 
ed him, and when he left office 
he was not popular. 

In 1844 the Whigs nominated 
the eloquent Henry Clay for Pres- 
ident ; the Democrats nominated 
James Knox Polk, of Tennessee. 
Polk, who advocated the annexa- 
tion of Texas was elected. ^ Polk was born in North Caro- 
lina in 1795, and he was the first President that was a na- 
tive of the country west of the Alleghany Mountains. He 



Tyler's 
tration. 




Polk ele 
Preside! 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




MES KNOX POLK. 




6AM HOUSTON. 



had been Speaker of the national 
House of Representatives, and was 
nominated in preference to Van Bu- 
ren because the latter opposed the 
annexation of Texas. 

The most important event of Ty- 
ler's administration was the passage 
of a bill for the annexation of Tex- 
as, which was accomplished just be- 
fore Tyler gave up office to Polk. 
Texas had been one of the States of 
the Republic of Mexico. A large 
number of Americans had settled on 
grants of land there. These came 
into collision with the Mexican government, which was 
arbitrary and oppressive, and an armed revolution broke 
out in Texas in 1835. 

The Texans were commanded by General Sam Hous- 
ton. Houston was born in the mountain-region of Vir- 
ginia in 1793. He got little education, and showed from 
the first the vein of adventurousness which ran 
through his career. When the family removed to 
Tennessee, he spent much time with neighboring 
Indians, and was adopted by one of the Chero- 
kees. He enlisted in the army, and attracted Jack- 
son's attention b}' his bravery in his great battle 
with the Creek Indians. He was promoted in 
the army, but resigned, studied and practiced law, 
and was twice elected to Congress. Becoming un- 
popular, he followed his Cherokee father to his new 
home on the Arkansas River, adopted the Indian dress, 
and lived three years in the tribe, visiting Washington 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 



285 



in the interest of the Indians. In 1832 he went to Texas, 
then a Mexican State, and in the Texan Revolution he 
became commander-in-chief. 

Santa Anna marched against the Texans, and at the 
taking of Fort Alamo he put to death all opposed to 
him, and he also executed five hundred men at Goliad. 
Houston prudently fell back until Santa Anna was com- 
pelled to weaken his force by detachments. At last, 
with seven hundred and fifty men, Houston surprised 
the main division of the Mexicans, about eighteen hun- 
dred strong. The Texans went into battle crying, 
" Remember the Alamo ! " and Santa Anna's army was 
destroyed and he made prisoner. 

Texas gained a virtual independence by this battle and 
Houston became President of the new republic, which 
remained independent for about ten years. The people 
of Texas were largely from the United States, and in 
1845 Texas was annexed to 
the United States by treaty, 
and admitted to the Union. 
In territory Texas is about 
the size of France. 

The annexation of Texas 
was strongly opposed by 
some people in the United States because its laws 
allowed slavery, and it would be an addition to the 
power of the slaveholding States. Its annexation was 
also opposed b}- many who feared a war with Mexico, 
for that counti"y had never given up its hope of re- 
conquering Texas. 

There were already other grounds of quarrel with 
Mexico. In the violent revolutions in that country 



nd admitted. 



TEXAS 

265,780 Square Miles 



FR A 

204,178 Sq 



N C E 

uare Miles 



of quar- 
Mexico. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Capture of Mon 



American citizens had been robbed of a great deal of 
property by those claiming authority. As one Mexi- 
can government quickly 
overthrew another, the 
United States tried in 
vain to get a payment 
of what was due to our 
citizens. And even if 
Mexico had consented to 
the annexation of Texas, 
there would have re- 
mained a dispute about 
its true boundary. Our 
government supported 
the claim of Texas, that 
the Rio Grande was 
the true border, while 
Mexico would not allow that the State of Texas ex- 
tended farther to the west than the Nueces River. 

When General Taylor occupied this disputed terri- 
tory, in 1846, the Mexicans attacked his troops, and thus 
hostilities began. With a force much inferior to that 
of the Mexicans, Taylor fought and won the battle of 
Palo Alto, and afterward attacked and defeated the 
Mexicans in a strong position at Resaca de la 
Palma. 
These defeats drove the Mexicans across the Rio 
Grande. In Ma}' Taylor crossed the river and took 
possession of the city of Matamoros. But the Mexi- 
cans showed no disposition to make peace. Having 
received re-enforcements, Ta3'lor marched on the forti- 
fied city of Monterey, which was defended by more 




THE MEXICAN WAR. 



287 



than ten thousand Mexicans. Taylor's force was smaller. 
The place was captured on the 24th of September, 1846, 
after several days of hard fighting. 

General Taylor now advanced farther into Mexico, 
but the United States government changed its plans, 
and orders were sent to Taylor to detach all but five 
thousand of his troops to the assistance of General Scott, 
who was to command in a new campaign, which was to 
be made into Mexico by way of Vera Cruz. Thus 
weakened, Gen- 

1^ 



Battle 
Vista. 







"v BuenaVi 

V 



eral Taylor took 
up a strong po- 
sition at Buena 
Vista, where he 
was assailed by 
twenty thou- 
sand Mexicans 
under Santa Anna. After two davs of the most coura- 
geous fighting, and after running the greatest risk of an 
overwhelming defeat, the little American army achieved 
the most brilliant victory of the war — a victory which 
made Taylor the idol of the country, and afterward 
brought about his election to the presidency. 

By this time the war had shown the immense supe- 
riority of the American troops, the most of whom were 
volunteers. The Mexicans often fought bravely, but the 
frequent revolutions and petty civil wars in Mexico had 
demoralized officers and soldiers. The arms of the Mexi- 
cans were also out of date. The Americans of that time 
were brave and enterprising, and a little too fond of mili- 
tar)' glory. They fought with great boldness and steadi- 
ness, and their early victories made them expect success. 



of the 
troops. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE CLOSE OF THE MEXICAN WAR, AND THE ANNEXA- 
TION OF NEW TERRITORY. 




Persistence of the 



Conquest of Ne 



Conquest of Cali- 
fornia. 



It is probable that the government of the United 
States expected at first to conclude the war after 
one or two battles by Taylor on the east side of 
the Rio Grande. But, if the Mexicans proved them- 
selves as soldiers inferior to the troops which marched 
against them, they showed themselves stubborn in 
N their refusal to treat for peace after repeated de- 
feats. Mexico was so filled with factions, and one 
Mexican government was so soon turned out by 
another, that no ruler felt himself strong enough to take 
the responsibility of making a humiliating peace. 

The war had been begun with the view of securing 
Texas, and of enforcing the claim of that State to the 
territory east of the Rio Grande, as well as to reclaim 
the damages due to citizens of this countr3\ But many 
of the American people at that time were eager for 
more territory, and the object of the struggle was pres- 
ently changed. Soon after war was declared. Colonel 
Kearny was sent to conquer the thinly settled northern 
portion of Mexico and Upper California. New Mexico 
was conquered without resistance in August, 1846. A 
civil government, subject to the United States, was im- 
mediately established there. 

A much more important acquisition was California, 
which was taken from Mexico before Colonel Kearny 
could get there. The name of this State while it be- 



THE CLOSE OF THE MEXICAN WAR. jSo 

longed to Mexico was Alta California, or, in English, 
Upper California ; Lower California still remains a part 
of Mexico. Upper California was first visited by Span- 
iards in 1542. Sir Francis Drake, the same who took 
Ralegh's colony back to England in 1585, visited Upper 
California in 1579, calling it New Albion, which means 
New England. It was nearly two hundred years later, 
in 1769, when Catholic missionaries from Spain made 
the first settlement of white people in that country. 
There were only about ten thousand white inhabitants 
in the whole province when it was seized by the United 
States in 1846. In the summer of that year California 
settlers from the United States set up a movement for 
independence and tried to establish a government, known 
now as " The Bear Flag Republic." They were aided 
by Captain Fremont (afterward a general), who was in 
the province as the leader of an exploring expedition. 
United States naval officers on the coast, expecting a 
war between this country and Mexico, raised the Ameri- 
can flag on shore, and after some fighting the province 
remained in American hands and was definitely annexed 
at the close of the Mexican War. 

The sparsely settled portions of Mexico known as object of the war 

changed. 

California and New Mexico had now come into the 
hands of the United States, and it became a main ob- 
ject with the government to close the war in such 
a way as not to surrender the great territory thus 
acquired. 

When it became evident that General Taylor's vie- scotts expedi- 
tories in northern Mexico only wounded the vanity of 
the Mexicans without subduing them, it was resolved 
to land a force at Vera Cruz and march into the interior. 



290 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



It was thought that the Mexicans would readily make 
peace when their capital was threatened. 

General Scott, at that time commander-in-chief of the 
American armies, took charge of this expedition. He 
landed on the 9th of March, 1847, 
and immediately laid siege to 
Vera Cruz. The city surrendered 
on the 27th of the same month. 

Marching into the interior, 
General Scott found the Mexican 
general, Santa Anna, opposing 
him at a strongly fortified posi- 
tion. On the 1 8th and igth of 
April, 1847, Scott fought the bat- 
tle of Cerro Gordo, completely 
defeating and dispersing the 
Mexican army. But the more the 
Mexicans were defeated, the more unwilling were they 
to make peace with an invading army. 

One of the most difificult undertakings that ever fell 
to the lot of an armv now became necessary. The 
American force of ten thousand men had advanced into 
the very heart of Mexico. It had to subsist on the coun- 
tr3% and to attack the Mexicans, now rallying in great 
numbers, in strongly fortified positions. 

Arrived in the region of the capital, General Scott 
der of the city of fougiit and wou the battle of Contreras on August 20, 
1847, and the battle of Churubusco on the same day. 
After this battle there was an armistice, but attempts at 
negotiation failed, and on the 8th of September Scott 
defeated the Mexicans at Molino del Rey. On the morn- 
ing of September 13th the American troops carried the 




Battle of Cerro 
Gordo. 



Difficulty of 
Scotts marc 



BattI 
capital 



THE CLOSE OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 



291 



fortress of Chapultepec by storm, going over the works 
with scaling-ladders and fighting a hand-to-hand battle 
within the castle walls. The city of Mexico was attacked 







SCOTT'S CAMI 



at the same time, and the next day it was evacuated 
by the Mexicans and occupied by General Scott. 

Although the Mexicr.ns had lost every considerable Peace concluded, 
battle from the beginning of the war to the conquest of ^"^"^""^ "^*- 
the capital, their national pride made them very loath 
to conclude a peace. In February, 1848, neariy five 
months after the capture of the capital, a treaty was 
signed, by which all the territory 
of New Mexico, as then consti- 
tuted, and Upper California, became 
United States territory. Our gov- 
ernment, however, agreed to pay 
fifteen million dollars to Mexico, 
and to discharge the claims of our 
own citizens against that country. 

General Winficld Scott, whose 
victories brought the Mexican War 
to a close, was born in Petersburg 
Virginia, in 1786. He entered the 
army iu 1808. His brilliant services 




the 



2g2 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

General Scott. in various battlcs duriiig the War of 1812 had raised 
him by the close of that contest to the rank of major- 
general. In 1841 he became general-in-chief of the 
army. His conquering march from Vera Cruz to the 
city of Mexico showed high military ability. He ran 
for President in 1852 and was defeated. When the civil 
war began he was seventy-five years old, and he was 
obliged by infirmities to yield the chief command to 
younger men. General Scott died in 1866, at the age 
of eighty. 

Opinions about There has always been a difference of opinion in the 

United States about the Mexican War. Even at the 
present time opinions are divided as to whether it might 
not have been wisely avoided. It cost us the lives of 
thousands of brave men who fell in fighting on a for- 
eign soil, or perished by the heat of the cHmate and the 
diseases of the country, and it caused much misery to in- 
nocent people in Mexico. No doubt, the ignorance and 
prejudice prevailing in that country at the time, and the 
frequent overthrow of one government and the setting 
up of another, made it difificult to treat with Mexico 
without war. From the time that American settlers 
became a dominant element in Texas, a collision with 
the Mexicans was probably inevitable. 

The territory ac- The territory acquired from Mexico, first and last, was 
larger than the United States at the close of the Revolu- 
tionary War. It comprised all the region now included 
in Texas, CaHfornia, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, the 
greater part of Colorado, and a part of Wyoming. The 
acquisition of this territory has exerted a most impor- 
tant influence upon the recent history of the country. 
By throwing into the hands of an energetic people the 



quired from Mex 



THE CLOSE OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 20^ 

gold and silver mines of that region, it has added so 
largely to the world's stock of the precious metals 
as to affect profoundly the commerce of the globe. 

Vast min- 




cattle-raising interests, 
with innumerable oth- 
er sources of wealth, 
have been added to 

the United States. This annexation opened to us the 
trade of the Pacific, and added immeasurably to the vari- 
ety of climate and production within the bounds of the 
United States. The unexpected political results which 
followed will be traced hereafter. 

Before the Mexican War broke out, the United States Discovery of the 

11 t . 1 T-» .r r-< !• Oregon country. 

was already reachmg out to the racinc. Some discover- 
ies had been made in that quarter as long ago as 1791. 
A certain Captain Gray, from Boston, went to the Pacific 
coast to trade for furs in 1787. These he took to China, 
and brought back a cargo of teas from thei-e to the United 
States in 1790. He was the first man to carry the flag of 
the new American Republic round the world. In 1791 he 



294 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATE *,. 



Explorations by 
Lewis and Clark. 






The Orego 
pute. 



went to the Pacific again, and in 1792 entered before any 
other navigator the mouth of a large river which he 
called the " Columbia," after the name of his ship. This 
gave the United States a claim to what was called the 
"Oregon country " — Oregon being another name for the 
Columbia River. 

The province of Louisiana, which was purchased from 
France in 1803, included the territory drained by the Mis- 
souri. Captains Lewis and Clark were sent by President 
Jefferson in 1803 to ascend the Missouri and cross the 
Rocky Mountains to the Columbia. These brave explor- 
ers, after the greatest dangers and hardships, spent a win- 
ter on the Columbia, and returned to St. Louis in 1805, 
after an absence of two years and four months from the 

settlements of civ- 
ilized people. 

Our claim to 
the Oregon country 
rests chiefl}- on the 
exploration by Cap- 
tain Gray and that 
b}' Lewis and Clark. 
When the Mexican 
War began, we 
were engaged in a 
dispute with Eng- 
land regarding our right to this territory. This dispute 
was settled in 1846 by a treaty which gave the United 
States all south of latitude 49°. 

After the admission of Missouri in 1821, no new States 
were taken into the Union for fifteen years. Arkansas 
was admitted as a slave State in 1836, and was balanced 













THE CLOSE OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 



295 



bv Michisfan, which came in as a free State in the follow- Admission ot 

, . Arkansas, 1836 , 

ing year. Two States in the extreme South were admit- Michigan, 1837; 
ted in 1845 — Florida, which we had acquired from Spain, Texas, 1845; 
as we have seen, and Texas, which had been a part of '°^s^n ''.''j j ^^'^ 
Mexico and then an independent republic. But in 1846 California, 1850. 
Iowa was admitted, and in 1848 the extreme northern 
State of Wisconsin. In 1850 Congress admitted Cali- 
fornia, the first State on the Pacific coast, which was then 
like a new world to Americans. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE QUESTION OF SL.WERY IN POLITICS. 
The annexation of Texas opened a new chapter in The annexation 

of Texas sets in 

American history. It involved us in a dispute which motion a chain 
produced the Mexican War. That brought a large addi- en"n"the c?vii 
tion to our territorv. It became necessar}- to settle the ^^^' 
question of slavery in the annexed territory, and this 
opened the slavery agitation anew. Both of the old 
parties were after a while split asunder by the debate, 
and the question of slavery or no slavery in the Ter- 
ritories became the leading issue in our politics. In 
sixteen years from the annexation of Texas, this chain of 
causes had plunged the country into the most tremen- 
dous civil war in the history of the world. In just 
twent}- _years the war had ended in the entire abolition 
of slaver}- in the United States. Thus, the annexation of 
Texas brought about unforeseen results which changed 
the history of the continent. 



296 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Anti-slavery agi- 
tation opposed. 



The Wilmot Pro- 
viso. 



Election and 
death of Presi- 
dent Taylor. 
Fillmore suc- 
ceeds to the 
presidency. 



After the adoption of the Missouri Compromise in 
1820, it had been an accepted maxim in our politics that 
the slavery discussion should not be reopened. William 
Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and a few others who 
insisted on advocating the abolition of slavery, were 
frowned upon as unpatriotic. They were severely perse- 
cuted even by Northern people, who feared that their 
agitation of the subject might destroy the Union. 

But, when the arrangement made by the Missouri 
Compromise was once disturbed by annexing Texas and 
other Mexican territory, the political struggle between 
the free and slave States began anew. In 1846, during 
the Mexican War, a bill was introduced in Congress 
looking to a peace with Mexico, to be made by a pur- 
chase of territory. Mr. Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, moved 
to add a proviso that slavery should never exist in the 
territory thus acquired. This was known as "the Wil- 
mot Proviso." The proviso was finally rejected, but it 
opened the question of freedom or slavery in the new 
region before the Mexican War was ended, and the agi- 
tation thus introduced once more into politics did not 
cease while slavery existed. 

The first effect of the excitement was to render cer- 
tain the defeat of the Democratic party in the election 
of 1848. A large number of Democrats and a smaller 
number of Whigs seceded from the old parties and 
formed the Free-Soil party, which desired to shut slav- 
ery out of the Territories. The Democrats nominated 
General Cass ; the Whigs nominated General Zachary 
Taylor, the hero of Buena Vista, for President. The 
Free-Soilers nominated ex-President Martin Van Buren. 
Taylor was elected. 



THE QUESTION Of SLAVERY IN POLITICS. 



297 




General Taylor was the twelfth 
President of the United States, and 
of these first twelve Presidents sev- 
en were born in Virginia, which 
got the name of " the Mother of 
Presidents " from that fact. Zach- 
ary Taylor was born in Virginia 
in 1784, but he was carried to Ken- 
tucky in his infancy. He got a 
commission in the army when lie 
was twenty -four years old. He 
gained his first distinction by his 
gallant defense of Fort Harrison 
in the war against Tecumseh's In- 
dians. In a war waged against the Seminole Indians sketch of xayior. 
in Florida he defeated the savages in a severe battle 
at Okeechobee. His fame rests chiefly on his achieve- 
ments in the Mexican War. After serving for a year 
and four months. President Tajlor died, and was suc- 
ceeded by Millard Fillmore, of New York, the Vice- 
President. 

But while the country was excited over the presiden- Discovery of gow 

■' _ '^ in California. 

tial election, an event took place in the newly annexed 
Territory of California that gave fresh violence to the 
slavery debate. Particles of gold were discovered in 
the Sacramento River in 1848. The California mines 
proved to be the richest in the world. In 1849, a 
great rush of people to the new Territory set in. Ships 
loaded with passengers sailed around Cape Horn to seek 
their fortunes in a land of gold. Long trains of emi- 
grants in ox-carts wended their way across the almost 
unknown region between the Missouri River and the 



298 



HISIORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Californ 
State. 



Fug 


itive slaves 


and 


the slave- 


trad 


e in the Dis- 


trict 


of Columbia. 



of iSjo. 



Pacific slope, a region at that time occupied by bands 
of warlike Indians. 

In 1849 the people of California set up a State govern- 
ment without authority from Congress, and asked to be 
immediately admitted to the Union. As pai't of the new 
State was south of the Missouri Compromise line, and as 
its Constitution forbade slavery, 
the slave States were opposed 
to this addition to the number 
of free States. 

Meantime the growing anti- 
slavery sentinrent at the North 
made it harder to reclaim run- 
away slaves, who escaped in 
large number to the free States. 
The Southern States complained 
of this as a violation of the Con- 
stitution, which provided that all 
such fugitives should be sent 
back. At the same time many 
people in the Northern States 
complained that the public traffic in slaves in the city 
of Washington was highlv improper in the capital of a 
free country. 

The veteran statesman Henr}- Clay had alwa3-s been 
a skillful compromiser of difficulties. He now arranged 
and carried, with the help of Webster and others, the 
measures which have since been known as " The Com- 
promise of 1850." By this compromise slavery was to be 
continued in the District of Columbia, but the buying 
and selling of slaves there was to be abolished. At the 
same time a new and severe law was made for the return 




THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY IX POLITICS. 



299 



of fugitive slaves, which was no longer left to the States, 
but intrusted to United States officers. California was 
admitted as a free State, and New Mexico organized as a 
Territory without slavery. The leading statesmen of the 
country imagined that these measures, which were 
adopted after long debate, and which gave something to 
each side, would forever put to rest this dangerous 
question. 

There was indeed a lull in the excitement. The little Election of 
Free-Soil party, which had helped to defeat the Demo- 
crats in 1848, cast fewer votes in 1852 for its candidate, 
John P. Hale, than it had cast for Van Buren in 1848. 
The Whigs nominated General Winfield Scott, the con- 
queror of the city of Mexico, but divisions on the slavery 
question had broken the power of that part\-, and Frank- 
lin Pierce, of New Hampshire, the Democratic candi- 
date, was elected by a large majority. 

Pierce was born in New Hamp- 
shire in 1804. He was a lawyer, a 
member of the House of Representa- 
tives, and a United States senator. 
He served in the Mexican War as 
a brigadier-general under Scott. He 
was a man of correct life, but of 
mediocre ability. 

The Compromise of 1850 did not 
prove to be, what its promoters called 
it, " a finality "; that is, an end of the 
debate. The fugitive-slave law exasperated the North- opposition to the 

11^ 1-1 1 -^ ■. 1 ,1 fugitive-slave 

em people, hvery negro clamTcd under it excited the law. 
sympathy of the people and awakened opposition to 
slavery. Every arrest of a fugitive slave was made the 




300 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



occasion of anti-slavery speeches, and so great was the 
feeling that in many places it became impossible to exe- 
cute the law. 

Effect of "Uncle The anti-slavcry sentiment at the North was quick- 
Tom's Cabin." 

ened and diffused at this time by the publication of the 

novel entitled " Uncle Tom's Cabin." It was calcu- 
lated to excite sympathy for slaves, and it at once 
reached a circulation that has hardly an equal in the 
history of literature. 

Dissatisfaction at The South was equally dissatisfied. The violent cen- 
sures of anti-slavery speakers and writers excited bit- 
ter feelings. It soon became evident also that about 
all of the territory remaining to be admitted into the 
Union would, in the nature of things, come in as free 
States. It was seen that this would put the slave States 
in the minority, and destroy what was called " the bal- 
ance of power " between the two sections. 

Efforts to secure Attempts wcrc therefore made to purchase the isl- 

new territory at i r r • t-i 

the South. The and of Cuba in order to make new States from it. But 
Spain refused to sell Cuba. The desire of our people 
for new territory had been greatly inflamed by their 
recent acquisitions, and threats were made to seize Cuba 
by force. Expeditions were secretly fitted out in the 
United States to promote insurrections in the island, 
but they came to nothing. Several attempts were made 
by " filibusters " to seize territory from the weak states 
in Central America. These were continued until i860, 
when the chief filibuster, William Walker, was captured 
and executed bv Central American authorities. 



APPROACH OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



301 



CHAPTER L. 

BREAK-UP OF OLD PARTIES. — APPROACH OF THE 
CIVIL WAR. 



The Whig party was passing into decrepitude. The 
measures it had advocated — the United States Bank, the 
tariff, and internal improvements — were no longer of the 
highest importance in the eyes of the people. 

The Whigs had been badly beaten in 1852. Those 
opposed to the Democratic party felt obliged to take 
new ground. A party was founded in 1853 which pro- 
posed to keep foreigners out of office and to make them 
wait a longer term before becoming citizens. This was 
styled the "American part}'." Its members were organ- 
ized in secret lodges, and it carried man}- elections by 
surprise. The public was much excited by the mystery 
attending the action of this organization. To all ques- 
tions about its doings the members of the order answered. 
" I don't know." From this arose the name " Know- 
nothing," which was commonly applied to the party. 
Know-nothingism spread rapidly for two or three years, 
but died as quickly as it had come into life, for the 
slavery question took a new form, which left no 
room for any other debate. 

This new form was brought about by the bill organ- 
izing the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, introduced 
in 1854 by Senator Douglas, of Illinois. This bill re- 
pealed the Missouri Compromise, which had been adopt- 
ed in 1820, and had been always afterward looked upon 
with almost as great reverence as the Constitution itself. 



t of the 
party. 




braska Bill. 



302 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



By that compromise slavery had been forbidden in all 
new territory north of latitude thirty-six degrees and a 
half. Kansas and Nebraska were on the north side of 
this line. The " Nebraska Bill," as it was called, repealed 
this restriction, and left it for the settlers in the new ter- 
ritory to decide the question of slavery for themselves. 
This was called " Squatter Sovereignty " in the discus- 
sions of the time. 
Formation of the The cxxitemcnt regarding the repeal of the Missouri 

Free-Soil and . i r i • , 

then of the Re- Compromisc cxcccded any ever before known ni this 
pu lean par y. country. Many people in the North and some at the 
South regarded it as an act of bad faith. Most of the 
people of the South claimed that they had an equal 
right with free-state people to take their property of 
every kind to the new Territories. Both sides became 
exceedingly violent. As President Pierce favored the Ne- 
braska Bill, those Whigs who took the same side gener- 
ally went over to the Democratic party, while those op- 
posed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, whether 
Whigs or Democrats, united, and, with the old Free-Soil 
party, formed an " Anti-Nebraska party." This present- 
ly took the name " Republican," but it is not to be con- 
founded with the old Republican party of the da3s of 
Jefferson. 
Violent collisions Meantime the great struggle between the two sec- 
tions had been transferred to the new Territory of 
Kansas. This lay directly west of Missouri, and a 
strong effort was made to secure it, both by the North 
and the South. Emigrants poured in from both sides 
of the line between the free and the slave States. So- 
cieties were formed at the North to promote emigra- 
tion, and in Missouri to keep emigrants from the free 



In Ka 



APPROACH OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



303 



States away. Many free-state men were stopped and 
turned back on the Missouri River. The free -state 
people and the slave-state people now came into collision 
on the Kansas prairies. Men from Missouri assisted the 
Southern part}-. Rival governments were formed. Kan- 
sas soon became the scene of a violent struggle. Mid- 
night assassinations and mobs were common, and some- 
thing like open war broke out from time to time. The 
men from the Northern States soon had a majority, and 
asked admission to the Union. The bloody feud in Kan- 
sas had by this time produced the greatest excitement 
in Congress and convulsed the whole country. 

While the people were in this state of passionate 
excitement about the struggle in Kansas, the presidential 
canvass of 1856 came on. The Democrats nominated 
James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania ; 
the new Republican party nomi- 
nated John C. Fremont, who had 
become known as a daring explorer 
in the Western plains, and who had 
taken part in the conquest of Cali- 
fornia. The American, or Know- 
nothing, party nominated ex-Presi- 
dent Millard Fillmore. Buchanan, 
the Democratic candidate, was elect- 
ed. Fillmore got but eight electo- 
ral votes, Fremont one hundred and 
fourteen, and Buchanan one hundred 

and seventy-four. The election showed that the people 
were interested in nothing but the settlement of the 
slavery question. No presidential election had ever 
before turned wholly or chiefly on this question. 




304 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Sketch of James Buchanan, the fifteenth President, was born in 

Pennsylvania in 1791. He was a successful lawyer, a 
member of Congress, United States minister to Russia, 
member of the Senate, and Secretary of State in the 
Cabinet of President Polk. He was minister to England 
during the administration of Pierce. In 1854 he was one 
of the signers of a document known as the " Ostend 
Manifesto," by which three foreign ambassadors of the 
United States assembled at Ostend, in Belgium, threat- 
ened that their Government would seize the island of 
Cuba by force if it could not be purchased from Spain. 
Buchanan lived until 1868. 

Dissolution of the The division of parties on the slavery question caused 

Union feared. rii !••• riTT- t^ re 

men to forebode a division of the Union, livery effort 
to settle the question once for all had failed. The Mis- 
souri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill, had all failed to quiet the agitation of the 
slavery question. Two forms of society existed under 
the same Government which were incompatible with 
each other. In such a conflict one or the other must 
give way and go down. 
The Dred Scott It was thought that, if it could bc settled by a decision 

decision. 

of the Supreme Court, from which there is no appeal, 
everybody would acquiesce, and the matter would be 
ended. The Supreme Court of the United States at 
length attempted to settle the question of slavery in the 
Territories, and thus take it out of politics. In the 
spring of 1857, in the case of a negro named Dred Scott, 
who sued for his freedom on the ground that his master 
had taken him to a free State, the Supreme Court de- 
cided that the African whose ancestors had been slaves 
had no rights under the Constitution, and that Congress 



APPROACH OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



305 



had no power to forbid slavery in the Territories. So 
far from settling the question, this decision proved to 
be oil on the fire. The North now feared that slavery 
would be made national by a new decision of the Su- 
preme Court, which might establish the right of the 
citizen of one State to convey slave-property to another. 

While the Northern people were alarmed over the John Brown's 
Dred Scott decision, an event occurred which carried the 
excitement at the South to a still higher pitch. In 1859 
John Brown, who had borne a conspicuous part as a free- 
state man in the murderous feuds of the Kansas struggle, 
seized the United States armory at Harper's Ferry, in the 
mountains of Virginia, and undertook to liberate the 
slaves. As he had but eighteen men under his com- 
mand, he was soon overcome. He was tried and exe- 
cuted, but this raid alarmed the South more than the 
Dred Scott decision had the North. People in the 
Southern States began to fear that the Northern people 
generally were tr3-ing to arm the slaves for the murder 
of their masters. 

The excitement over the subject of slavery had Lincoln elected 

President, i860. 

already divided into two parts nearly all the great 
religious denominations, and had destroyed the Whig 
party. In i860 it divided the Democratic organization. 
The majority in the convention of that party nominated 
Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, the author of the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill. The Democrats who adhered most 
strongly to the South put forward John C. Breckin- 
ridge, of Kentuck3\ The Republicans nominated Abra- 
ham Lincoln, of Illinois. The Constitutional Union 
party, as it was called, which desired to make peace 
between the angry sections, nominated John Bell, of 



3o6 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Increase in the 
number of free 
States. Minne- 
sota admitted, 
1858; Oregon, 
1859 ; and Kansas, 



Tennessee. Lincoln was elected. We have now reached 
the point where the angry debate between the North 
and the South was at last about to break into a long and 
terrible war. 

One element in the political jealousies of this excited 
time was the increase of free States. Minnesota was 
admitted in 1858, Oregon in 1859, and Kansas soon after 
the election of Lincoln, in 1861. There was now no terri- 
tory left at the South from which new slave States could 
be made. 



CHAPTER LL 



HOW THE GREAT CIVIL WAR BEGAN. 



Difference ol 
opinion abou 
State sover- 
eignty. 



The excitement at the South had reached a pitch that 
rendered an effort to break up the Union inevitable. 
From the moment that Lincoln's election was known, 
active preparations were made in what were called the 
" cotton States " — South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas — to dissolve 
the Union of States. 

From the beginning of the government there were 
two opinions in regard to the power of a State under the 
Constitution. The Federalists thought that nearly all the 
powers of government were vested in the United States 
authorities, but the Jefferson Republicans held that a 
State retained a considerable share of independence. At 
a later period the chief advocate for the sovereignty of 
the State had been John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, 
who thought a State could declare an act of Congress 



< 



> 

U 

w 

X 

Z 

CO 

cr; 

o 
5 

< 

CO 

Q 
W 
H 

Z 




HOiV THE GREAT CIVIL WAR BEGAN. 1Q7 

null — that is, not valid within its bounds. In 1S32 the 
State of South Carolina declared the tariff law null, and 
forbade its citizens to pay the duties. This was called 
nullification ; but President Jackson, who did not believe 
in the doctrine, threatened the nullifiers with the army 
and navv of the United .States. Clav introduced a com- 
promise bill, and the matter was settled without a collision. 

The States-rights doctrine — as the belief in the right The seven "cot- 
ton States " pass 

of a State to act independently was called — had found a ordinances of se- 

good many adherents in the South, and in the present 

excitement the extreme Southern States claimed that, by 

exercising the right of the individual State, they might 

lawfully secede from the Union. South Carolina first 

passed an ordinance of secession on December 20, i860. 

By the ist of February each of the seven " cotton 

States " had declared itself separated from the Union 

and independent. 

Meantime the recollection of the success of the Mis- ^he Peace con- 
vention meets in 
souri Compromise in 1820, and of the Compromise of vain. 

1850, led some members of Congress to try to settle 
the troubles once more by compromise. Many plans for 
changes in the Constitution and laws were proposed in 
Congress, but all without avail. A " Peace Convention," 
suggested by Virginia, assembled in Washington on the 
4th of February, 1861. There were delegates from all 
but the seceded States. John Tyler, ex-President of the 
United States, was president of this convention. But the 
plan of compromise suggested by the Peace Convention 
failed, like all others. The time for compromises had 
gone by, and it was beyond the ingenuity of man to pre- 
vent a collision between the two sections which had op- 
posed each other in politics, and were now about to try 



3o8 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The period of 



Anderson in Fort 
Sumter. 



their strength and endurance in the deadly struggles of 
the battle-field. 

It was a time of great trouble and division. Many 
people at the North sympathized with the secession 
movement ; and others were opposed to any forcible 
measures to retain the Southern States in the Union. 
Many people at the South, on the other hand, were in 
favor of maintaining the Union. Even the Cabinet of 
President Buchanan was divided. Some of the members 
of the Cabinet desired to help the seceding States to 
which they belonged ; the other Secretaries considered 
secession rebellion, and urged that force should be used 
to suppress it. The President, for his part, did not be- 
lieve that the States had a right to go out of the Union, 
but he also did not believe that he had any authority to 
compel them to stay in. So everything was in confu- 
sion, debate, and perplexity in that awful winter, during 
which a, storm was gathering, the force and extent of 
which nobody could divine. 

All eyes were turned to Charleston harbor, where 
thousands of excited Southerners faced a little garrison 
of seventy men under command of Major Robert An- 
derson. On the evening of the 
day after Christmas, Anderson 
suddenly moved his garrison 
in the dark from the weak 
Fort Moultrie into the strong- 
er Fort Sumter. A ship sent 
with supplies and re-enforce- 
ments was fired on by the 
South Carolina batteries and 
turned back. 




NOir THE GREAT CIVIL WAR BEGAN. 



309 




On the 4th of February, the day that the Peace confed 
Convention met in Washington, there assembled in 
Montgomery, Alabama, a conven- 
tion of delegates from the se- 
ceded States. This convention 
proceeded to form a new gov- 
ernment, under the title of " The 
Confederate States of America." 
Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, 
was elected President. 

Jefferson Davis, whc:) held the 
office of President as long as the 
Confederacy existed, was born in 
Kentucky, June 3, 1808. He was 
graduated at West Point in 1828. 
He left the army in 1835, and be- 
came a member of Congress ten 

years later. In the Mexican War he was colonel of a 
Mississippi regiment, and was distinguished for cour- 
age and coolness in action. He served several years as 
United States Senator from Mississippi, and was Secre- 
tary of War in President Pierce's Cabinet. He again 
entered the Senate in 1857, from which he resigned when 
Mississippi seceded in 1861. 

On the 4th of March, Abraham Lincoln was inaugu- The bi 
rated President of the United States. Measures were sumte 
soon taken to re-enforce and supply the garrison 
of Fort Sumter. But the ships sent were de- 
tained outside the bar by a storm, and, as soon 
as their coming was known, all the Confederate 
batteries about the harbor opened on Fort Sum- 
ter, which, after a while, replied. For thirty-six 



imbard- 
f Fort 




^lO HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

hours the bombardment continued, setting fire to the 
wood-work of the fort and pounding its walls to pieces. 
At the end of this time Major Anderson, whose provis- 
ions were nearly exhausted, agreed to evacuate the fort. 
Curiously enough, nobody was killed on either side 
in this bombardment. But the attack on Fort Sumter 
changed the whole situation. Doubt was at an end on 
both sides. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and 
Arkansas, forced now to take one side or the other, soon 
joined the Confederacy. On the other hand, the Sun- 
day morning on which Major Anderson marched out of 
Fort Sumter saw the Northern States also almost of one 
mind. Men were wild with excitement, and political par- 




the President to decide on peace or war — the war burst 
uncontrollably from the pent-up passions of the people. 
Perhaps so wild a burst of feeling was never before 
known to pervade such multitudes. 



HOir THE GREAT CIVIL WAR BEGAN. 



311 



In response to a call from the President, nearh' a hun- The rush to arms, 
dred thousand men enlisted in the Northern States in 
three days. Trains loaded with volunteers began to 
move toward Washington. Money and ships without 
stint were offered to the government by the rich. Regi- 
ments marching through the streets of towns were 
greeted everywhere by the shouts of the people, who 
sometimes wept as they cheered them. 

The Southern people were equally enthusiastic and The south in 
unanimous — equally resolved and hopeful. The young 
men of the South eagerly took up arms, and poured like 
a torrent into Virginia. The great civil war had burst 
upon the countr}" in all its fury. 



CHAPTER LII. 

CONFEDERATE VICTORY AT BULL RUN. — THE FIRST 
WESTERN CAMPAIGN. 

We are to remember that, though the war was caused The question oi 

. r 1 1 IT Union or seces 

by slavery, it was not at hrst about slavery, but about sion. 
secession. " Our States are sovereign, and have a right 
to secede when they think they have reason," was the 
Southern view of the matter. " You are a part of the 
Union, which forms but one nation, and to break up the 
Union is rebellion," was the Northern view. But the 
passions excited by the long and bitter debate over ques- 
tions relating to slavery lay at the bottom of the struggle. 
Neither side dreamed of the weary and bloody conflict 
which was to follow. Each expected to settle the matter 



312 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



the No 
theboi 



Early 
West 



in two or three battles. Both of them found out what 
stubborn work it was to tight against Americans. 

The Southerners were naturally more military than 
the Northern people ; they were generally accustomed 
to the saddle and the use of fire-arms. Many of the 
Northern men, especially those of the Eastern States, 
had to learn to load and fire a gun after they went into 
the army. For a long war the North had several ad- 
vantages. Money, trade, and the mechanical facilities 
for producing arms, ships, clothing, and other military 
necessities, belonged in a superior degree to the North. 
It had also the advantage of numbers ; the South the 
advantage of fighting in defense of its own ground, and 
of moving on shorter lines. 

The divided sympathies of the people in the border 
States, and the quick sending forward of volunteers 
from the North by many railroads, prevented Mary- 
land, Kentucky, and Missouri from seceding. In the 
western part of Virginia, where tiie slaves were few, the 

Union sentiment was 
strong, and this re- 
gion, in 1862, sepa- 
rated itself from Vir- 
ginia and formed a 
new State, which 
took the name of West Virginia. 
Several battles, though of no great mag- 
nitude, were fought to secure control of 
West Virginia. The Union armies here 
battles in were Commanded by General George B. McClellan. A 
small battle at Philippi was won by the Union troops. 




BULL RUX.— FIRST WESTERN CAMPAIGN. 



313 



(June II, 1861), lasting about an hour and a half, gave 
the possession of West Virginia to the Federal Gov- 
ernment. 

The failure to secure the border region was a seri- The south loses 

the border. 

ous loss to the Confederacy, for this was a land of 
Indian corn, most valuable for feeding of armies. The 
South thus lost also the Ohio and Potomac Rivers — 
the best line of defense. 

The war had opened with several small actions, such opening move- 
as the seizure of ports and navy-yards by the Confeder- 
ates, the attack on Union troops by a mob in Baltimore, 
several skirmishes in diderent parts of the country, and 
battles in the mountains of Vir- 
ginia. The Confederates had 
moved their capital from 
Montgomery, Alabama, to 
Richmond, Virginia, and the 
first important battle-ground 
would lie between the two 
capitals. So sure were the 
people of a short war, that 
most of the Northern volun- 
teers had been called out for only three months, and it 
was thought necessary to fight a battle before their time 
should expire. The people and newspapers at the North 
were clamoring for a forward movement, and the com- 
manders were despised for their caution. 

General McDowell moved toward Richmond, and 
on the 2ist of July, 1861, the battle of Bull Run. or 
Manassas, was fought, chiefly by raw troops on both 
sides. Generals Joseph E. Johnston and Beauregard 
commanded the Confederates. The battle was a se- 





FIRST BATTLE 




BULL RUN.—FLRST WESTERN CAMPAIGN. 



315 



Side campaign in 
Missouri. 



vere one and the losses were heavy, but the Confederates confederates win 

the first battle. 

were re-enforced at the right moment, and the Union 
army was at length entirely routed, and ffed back to 
Washington in confusion. 

The early struesfle in eastern Kentucky was a little Eariy struggle for 

. . . . . \ Kentucky. 

war by itself. Besides minor skirmishes. Colonel Gar- 
field, afterward President, defeated the Confederate lead- 
er Humphrey Marshall in the little battle of Preston- 
burg on the 17th of January, 1862. Another sharp con- 
flict took place at Mill Spring two days later, in which 
General George H. Thomas was victorious over the 
Confederate general Zollikoffer, who was killed in the 
engagement. 

The battles in Missouri and Arkansas proved a side 
campaign that had for its aim the securing of this 
State, in which opinion was 
much divided for the Union or 
the Confederacy. The Govern- 
or of Missouri took sides with 
the Confederacy. In the hard- 
fought battle of Wilson's Creek, 
August 10, 1861, General Lyon, 
of the United States army, was 

killed, and his troops retreated after the fight. The Con- 
federate general Price attacked Lexington, Missouri, on 
the 18th of September following, and captured nearly 
three thousand Union soldiers. In November follow- 
ing, General Pope, of the United States army, by sev- 
eral skillful movements, intercepted and captured large 
bodies of recruits on their way to join the Confeder- 
ate army. A severe battle fought at Pea Ridge, in 
northwestern Arkansas, on the 6th of March, 1862, finally 




3i6 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 




Grant takes Fort 
Henry and Fort 
Donelson. 



Fall of Island 




JOHN POPE. 



secured Missouri to the Union, by preventing the Con- 
federate forces from re-entering that State. 

The first important movement after Bull Run was 
the campaign which broke the Confederate line 
at the West, and gave the Mississippi River 
above Vicksburg to the control of the Federal 
Government. Ulysses S. Grant, who had already 
begun to show good military abilities, moved 
against Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, 
in co-operation with the gunboat fleet under 
Commodore Foote. Grant and Foote captured 
Fort Henry February 6, 1862. The Tennessee 
River here runs near to the Cumberland River. On 
the Cumberland, only about twelve miles from Fort 
Henry, was the Confederate Fort Donelson. After a 
stubborn battle, in which the Union loss was twenty- 
three hundred men, this fort was also surrendered, and 
with it fifteen thousand Confederate troops. This broke 
the center of the Confederate line of defense in the 
West, and forced them to fall back from Nashville and 
other points. 

General Pope, supported by gunboats, now moved 
against the Confederates who blocked the Mississippi at 
New Madrid and Island No. 10. New Madrid was 
evacuated, but, in order to capture Island No. 10, Pope, 
who was on the west side of the river, must cross be- 
low the island and cut off its supplies. As the batteries 
on the island commanded the channel, he had to dig a 
canal across a bend in the river in order to get trans- 
port-boats below the island, so as to ferry across the 
Mississippi. It took nineteen days to cut this canal. 
Gunboats could not get through it, and the transports 



BULL RUX.— FIRST WESTERN CAMPAIGN. 



Z^l 



TKl 




could not cross without their 
protection. Two gunboats were 
run past the batteries of the 
island at night. Cut off on all 
sides, the island was compelled 
to surrender, with nearl}- seven 
thousand men. 

The object of the Union 
troops in attacking Island No. 
ID had been to take a step 

toward getting possession of the Mississippi River, so as g 
to get the use of this great highway, and at the same 
time separate the Confederacy into two parts. For the 
same purpose the forces under Grant, after taking Fort 
Donelson, pushed southward up the Tennessee River, 
and a movement was planned to take Corinth, in the 
northern part of Mississippi. Many railroads centered 
at this place. The Union army, under General Grant, 
was gathered near Corinth, at Pittsburg Landing, in 
Tennessee, on the banks of the Tennessee River. Grant 
had from thirty to forty thousand men, and had no 
thought of a powerful enemy near at hand. The Con 
federate general, Albert Sidney Johnston, rapidly col- 
lected a strong army, and determined to crush the force 
at the Landing before Grant could be re-enforced 
by the arrival of another army under General Buell. 

The battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, began 
on Sunday morning, April 6, 1862. Johnston undertook * *• ^o""""" 
to attack in such a way as to surprise and drive Grant's The great battle 
army back between the river and a creek. The loss on pittsburg' Land- 
that dreadful Sunday was great on both sides. The '°^' 
Confederates, with desperate energy, drove Grant's men 




3ii 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Corinth evacu- 
ated by the Con- 
federates. 



back until Pittsburg Landing was almost in their pos- 
session. But their general, Albert Sidney Johnston, was 
killed. Buell's army began to arrive, and the Union 
troops were re-formed in the night. The second da3-'s 
fighting was also extremely severe. The exhausted 
Confederates under Beauregard at length retired from 
the field. This was the first great battle of the war. 
The Union arm)', when it had a little recov- 
ered from the terrible shock and had been re- 
cruited, moved forward against Corinth, which, 
after a siege, was evacuated by Beauregard on the 
30th of May. The consequence of this success was, that 
the whole Mississippi River, as far down as Vicksburg, 
came into possession of the Federal authorities. 



CHAPTER LIII. 

THE WAR AT THE EAST. — FROM BULL RUN TO 
GETTYSBURG. 



McCIellan com- 
mander-in-chief. 



General Scott, who was commander-in-chief of the 
armies of the United States at the beginning of tlie war, 
was old and infirm, and he soon retired. McCIellan, by 
his well-planned battle at Rich Mountain, in western 
Virginia, had shown capacity, and he was now called to 
command the forces in front of Washington. General 
McCIellan was born in Philadelphia in 1826. He was an 
industrious student and carried off honors in school. He 
was graduated at West Point, and distinguished himself 
by valor and good conduct in the Mexican War. In 1857 



THE WAR AT THE EAST. 



319 



Peninsular cam 
paign begun. 
Battle of Will- 
iamsburg. 



he resigned from the army, to accept a place as chief 
engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad, and later was 
president of another railroad. At the beginning of the 
war he was appointed major-general of volunteers. On 
his accession to the Army of the Potomac he spent eight 
months in organizing and disciplining his army. 

Instead of moving directly against the Confederate 
forces lying in front of him, McClellan thought best to 
take his army by water to Fortress Monroe, and from 
there to go up between York River 
and James River toward Richmond. 
The land between these two rivers 
forms a peninsula ; this is therefore 
known as the Peninsular campaign. 
From the beginning the campaign 
was unfortunate in many ways. Part 
of the troops which McClellan ex- 
pected to receive were detained for_ 
the defense of Washington. The 
Confederates forced him to spend a 
month in the siege of Yorktown. 
Yorktown was evacuated on the 5th 

GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN. 

of May. McClellan s troops pur- 
sued the retiring Confederates, and fought the battle of 
Williamsburg that day. The Confederates retreated at 
night toward Richmond. 

The Confederate general, Thomas J. Jackson, was Battle of Fair 
operating in the Valley of Virginia. He now made a 
series of rapid manoeuvres, by which he defeated or con- 
fused several bodies of Union troops and alarmed the 
authorities at Washington, so that McDowell's troops at 
Fredericksburg were held back from joining McClellan 




320 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




•STONEWALL" JACKSO 



before Richmond. Meantime the Confederate forces de- 
fending Richmond, under General Joseph E. Johnston, 
fought the battle of Fair Oaks by attacking one wing of 
McClellan's army while it was divided into two parts by 
the Chickahominy River, and won a partial success. 
Johnston having been wounded in this battle, General 
Robert E. Lee succeeded him. Jackson now slipped 
away from the Valley of Virginia, and suddenly brought 
his force down by rail to assist Lee in the struggle 
against McClellan. 

General Jackson, who helped to derange McClel- 
lan's plans, was a native of Virginia, born in 1824, 
and graduated at West Point in 1846. In the Mexi- 
can War he was twice brevetted for meritorious 
conduct. He resigned from the army in 1852, and 
became a professor in the Virginia Military Insti- 
tute. He entered the Confederate service at the 
beginning of the war. During the first battle of Bull 
Run he resisted a charge with so much steadfastness 
that he gained the title of "Stonewall" Jackson, by 
which name he will be known in histor}'. 
promptness and rapidity of his march- 
and the obstinate courage he showed 
on the battle-field, made him an im- 
portant factor in the war. 

After the arrival of Jack- 
son and the failure of his own 
re -enforcements, McClellan 
withdrew his troops to the 
James River. About this 
time the two armies were 
engaged every day ; these 




THE WAR AT THE EAST 



321 



conflicts are known as the Seven Days' battles. For a The seven Days 
whole week the Confederates beat upon McClellan's 
arm\'. Its months of discipline and drill enabled it to 
fall back slowly before Lee's furious onslaught. 

But McClellan's first plan had failed. The President Pope in command 
had lost confidence in McClellan's ability to overmatch 
such generals as Lee and Jackson. A new commander 
must be found. Pope, whose energy and success at 
Island No. 10 had given him reputation, was put in 
command of the army in front of Washington, and the 
troops on the James River were brought back by de- 
grees to re-enforce him. 

But Pope proved not to be equal 
to the Confederate generals in his 
front. Jackson made a great cir- 
cuit around through Thoroughfare 
Gap, and cut off Pope's commu- 
nications with Washington. The 
LTnion troops fought bravely on the 
old Bull Run battle-field (August 
29 and 30, 1862), and Pope showed 
his usual energy, but his enemy 
had beaten him in skillful manoeu- 
vres, and his army fell back dis- 
heartened to the neighborhood of 
Washington again, where it was a 
year before. 

McClellan, who, in spite of the 
unfortunate outcome of his cam- 
paign, had won the confidence of the men in the East- c^at battle at 

Antietam, in 

ern army, was now again put in command of it. Lee Maryland, iscs 
followed up his advantages by crossing the Potomac. 




322 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




A. E. BURNSIDE. 



Meantime he sent a force and captured Harper's Ferry, 
with eleven thousand Union soldiers. On the i6th and 
17th of September McClellan and Lee fought one of 
the severest battles of the war at Antietam Creek, near 
Sharpsburg, in Maryland. On the i8th Lee withdrew 
across the Potomac, and McClellan followed slowly, 
and again made the Rappahannock his line. 

But McClellan had lost the confidence of his su- 
periors, and he was now finall}- removed. General 
Burnside was next put in command of this unlucky 
armv. McClellan had been thought too cautious, but 
Burnside sue- Bumsidc was rash. He crossed the Rappahannock at 

ceeds McClellan, ^^ 

and is defeated at FredeHcksburg, and assailed the Confederate works on 

Fredericksburg. 

the heights back of the town on December 13, 1802. 
His army was again defeated with great slaughter. 

Burnside was relieved, and General Joseph E. Hook- 
er was tried. In the spring of 1863 General Hooker 
fought what was called the Chancellorsville campaign, 
where, like those who had gone before, he was outma- 
noeuvred by Lee's generalship and Jackson's marching. 
On Mav 6th Hooker recrossed the Rappahannock. 
Meade and Lee Lgg soou after crosscd the Potomac, and pushed his 

fight a great bat- 
tle at Gettysburg, veteran army into Pennsylvania, striking for Harris- 
burg. Hooker was relieved from commanding the army 
opposed to Lee, and General George G. Meade suc- 
ceeded him. Near Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, the 
vanguards of the two great armies met on the ist day 
of July, 1863. The people of the North and those 
of the South were filled with fear and anxiety as 
this battle approached. The courage of the troops 
on both sides was simply marvelous. On the second 
day of the battle the Confederates carried works at 



Hooker succeeds 
Burnside. De- 
feated at Chan- 
cellorsville, 1863. 




t-^r 



THE WAR A T THE EAST. 



323 



both ends of the Union line. The 
next da\- the Union army recovered 
the lost ground on its right. The 
Confederates then made a tremen- 
dous assault, known as Pickett's 
charge, and broke through the cen- 
ter of the Federal army, but they 
were soon driven back defeated. 
Lee's army rested a day and then 
retreated. Lee had lost about one 
third of his men ; Meade had lost 
a good deal more than a fourth of 

his. In all, about forty-eight thousand had been killed, 
wounded, or captured in this awful struggle between 
two veteran and resolute armies. 




CHAPTER LIV. 

VARIOUS OPERATIONS IN 1 863 AND 1863. 

In order to give a clear account of the campaigns introductory. 
about Washington and Richmond, down to the battle 
of Gettysburg, we have put that branch of the war into 
one continuous story in the preceding chapter. Many 
things of the highest importance were happening else- 
where, while McClellan and the generals who came 
after him were wrestling with Johnston, Lee, and Jack- 
son for Washington and Richmond. 

At the very moment that McClellan was getting Battle of the iron- 

^ clads at Fortress 

ready to move his army to the Peninsula, there took Monroe. 



324 



HISTORY OF THE UA'ITED STATES. 





place a famous naval battle in the waters of Hampton 
Roads, near Fortress Monroe. The Confederates, hav- 
ing seized the Norfolk Navy- Yard, had 
changed the hull of the steam-frigate Mer- 
rimac into an iron-plated steam-ram, and 
named it the " Virginia." On the 8th of 
March, the Virginia, or, as she is gener- 
ally spoken of, the Merrimac, came out 
from Norfolk into Hampton Roads, and 
after a battle sank the sloop-of-war Cum- 
berland. The frigate Congress was next disabled and 
afterward burned, for nothing built of wood could make 
any impression on this iron monster, whose sloping sides 
resisted cannon-balls as a bird's feathers shed the rain. 
The loss of life on both the vessels that were destroyed 
was great. The steam - frigate Minnesota, which was 
aground, was only saved from destruction by the coming 
of night. It was expected that, with the morning, the 
iron ship would complete the sinking of the shipping in 
Hampton Roads, and then go to the Potomac and attack 
Washington city. But, at midnight, there arrived from 
New York, all unexpected, a little iron-plated vessel, 
named the Monitor, of a new pattern, invented by 
John Ericsson. The next morning, when the Mer- 
rimac came out again, the Monitor successfully de- 
fended the Minnesota, until the Confederate ram, 
having met its match, retired. 

The chief peculiarity of the Monitor was a 
;' revolving turret on top, with walls eight inches 
thick, made of iron plates. It had openings for two 
large guns, which could be fired in any direction, and 
which threw shot weighing one hundred and sixty-six 



EMANCIPA TIOX rROCLAMA TIOA'. 



;25 



pounds with a charge of fifteen pounds of powder. The construction of 

the Monitor. 

vessel sat low in the water, and was described by the 
Confederates as a Yankee cheese-box on a raft. Vessels 
of this type proved themselves superior to any others 
used during the civil war. The conflict in Hampton 




Roads changed the construction of war-ships the world 
over, for it proved that wooden ships were of no use 
against iron ones. 

At the beginning, many of the Northern people, who ?■■ 
were very much in favor of the war to preserve the pre 
Union, had been opposed to the abolition of slavery. 
But, as the struggle went on, the feeling at the North 
against slavery, as the cause of the war, increased. On 
the 22d of September, 1862, just after the battle of Antie- 
tam. President Lincoln announced that, if any portion of 
the country should remain in arms against the govern- 
ment on the first of the following January, he would 
declare the slaves in that part of the country free. 



326 



HISTORY OF THE UXITF.D STATES. 



The Emancipa- 
tion Proclama- 
tion and its 



Capture of Ne 
Orleans. 



On the 1st of January, 1863, a proclamation de- 
clared the slaves free in those regions yet in arms 
against the United States, "as a fit and necessary war- 
measure for suppressing said rebellion." Certain por- 
tions of the South, already subjected to the military 
authority of the United States, were exxepted in the 
proclamation, and every effort was made to keep the 
declaration of freedom within the limits of the Presi- 
dent's constitutional powers, by confining it, at least in 
appearance, to strictly military purposes. But its effect 
was to pledge the country to the extinction of slavery if 
the Confederacy should be overthrown, and in this light 
it becomes a point of departure in the history of the 
United States. 

We have seen that the first object of the Union ar- 
mies in the West was to wrest the Mississippi River 
from the Confederate forces who held it by powerful 
works at Vicksburg and by forts be- 
low New Orleans. While the armies 
were operating above, the river was 
attacked from below. On the i8th 
of April, 1862, the bombardment of 
the forts below New Orleans was 
begun by a fleet of gunboats, and 
the firing lasted for five days, but 
the forts held out. At two o'clock 
on the afternoon of the 24th, Far- 
ragut, in command of the fleet, took 

FARRAGUT. 1111 f • i • 1 • 

the bold course of running his ships 
past the forts. The Confederates resisted by a tremen- 
dous fire from the forts and from their ships. They 
also tried to burn the United States vessels bv floating 




FALL OF iVElV ORLEANS. 



327 




?-^-'> 






down upon them fire-rafts and burning steamboats load- 
ed with cotton, and they attacked them also with an iron- 
clad ram, named the Manassas. But, 
notwithstanding this resolute defense, 
Farragut got by the forts, with some 
loss, and captured the city. The 
forts afterward surrendered. 

While Halleck dallied after tak- 
ing Corinth, the Confederate gen- 
eral Bragg took thirty-five thousand 
men by rail to Mobile, and thence 
northward on another line and seized 
Chattanooga. We shall see that it afterward cost the Bragg at chat- 

tanooga. 

Union troops some of the most desperate battles of the 
war to dislodge the Confederates from this stronghold. 

From Chattanooga Bragg moved north and invaded ^^^^^ ^"'^ ^"«" 

* ^f' in Kentucky, i86z 

Kentucky, and tried to reach Louisville, on the Ohio. 
A foot-race took place between the two armies, but 
Buell and the Union troops reached Louisville first. 
After a severe battle at Perry ville, October 8, 1862, 
Bragg once more retreated to Chattanooga. 

Part of the Union army was yet at Corinth. While Battle of corinth, 
Bragg and Buell were manoeuvring in Kentucky, the 
Confederates, under General Van Dorn, attacked this 
place on the 3d and 4th of October, 1862, and by the 
most desperate fighting drove the Union army from 
line to line until a part of the attacking force actually 
gained the town. But the resistance of the troops under 
Rosecrans was as stubborn as the attack was resolute, 
and Van Dorn's assaults were repulsed. 

Hitherto in manv operations the Confederates had <^''^"* '"^^ "^"5' 

devices against 

the advantage- in generalship. They were especially vicksburg. 




328 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



strong in this regard in the Virginia campaigns. But 
the Union armies of the West were gradually coming 
under the control of General Grant, a man of restless 
vigor and tremendous power of endurance under dififi- 
culty and repulse. All his first attempts to take Vicks- 
burg failed. Plan after plan was tried. A ditch was 
dug across the bend of the river opposite Vicksburg, in 
the hope that the river would change its bed, but this 
failed. Grant tried to open oth- 
er channels to reach the water- 
courses in the rear of the city. 
From time to time, when one 
plan failed, he resorted to a new 
device. 

At last gunboats and trans- 
ports were run past the batteries. 




der of Vicksburg, 



Crossing the Mississippi at Bruinsburg, be- 
low Vicksburg, Grant got in the rear of that 
stronghold. He took Jackson, the capital of 
Mississippi, and by a series of movements 
and successive battles he at last succeeded 
in shutting up the Confederate general Pem- 
berton, with his entire army, in the fortifica- 
tions of Vicksburg. Grant twice tried to 
carry the fortifications by assault, but the Confeder- 
ate soldiers were well-seasoned veterans behind strong 
works, and the assaults proved costly failures. The 
Union arm)', therefore, settled down to a regular siege 
of the place. On the 4th of July, 1863, the day after the 
battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, the half-starved 
garrison of Vicksburg, numbering about thirty-two thou- 
sand, surrendered to General Grant. During the siege 



FALL OF VICKSBVRG. 



329 



the inmates of the town had been forced to endure 
severe hardships, and many of the people took refuge in 
caves dug in the bank to be safe from the shot thrown 
into Vicksburg by the besieging army. 

While Grant was operating against Vicksburg, Gen- surrender of Port 

Hudson, 

eral Banks, who had taken an army of the Federal troops 
by sea to New Orleans, was trying to capture Port 
Hudson, farther down the river. Here, as at Vicksburg, 
two assaults were repulsed. But, when Vicksburg sur- 
rendered. Port Hudson was obliged to yield. This gave 
the Union armies possession of the whole of the Missis- 
sippi River, and cut off the western States of the Con- 
federacy from the eastern. 



CHAPTER LV. 

THE CAMPAIGN BETWEEN NASHVILLE AND ATLANTA. 

The Western part of the war had become divided ^he war in cen- 

tral Tennessee. 

into two main parts. The Union armies won their first 
object when they gained control of the Mississippi. But 
another long and bitter contest was fought out before 
they could secure the strongholds of central Tennessee 
and northern Georgia. 

The first great battle on this line was that of Stone Battle of stone 
River, or Murfreesboro, fought on the last day of the freesb'oro. 
year 1862, about the time that Grant was beginning op- 
erations against Vicksburg. The conflict was marked by 
the brilliant charges made by the Confederates under 
Bragg, which at length broke to pieces the whole right 



riBMi 







NASHVILLE AND ATLANTA. 



331 




S. ROSECRANS. 



wing of the Union army. General Rosecrans had suc- 
ceeded Buell in command of the Union troops. The re- 
sult of the day's fighting was very favorable to the Con- 
federates. But in the latter part of the day the half-de- 
feated Union soldiers, under the immediate command of 
General Thomas, made the most determined resistance 
to the dashes which the Confederates continued to make. 
Some of the generals wished to retreat, but Rosecrans, 
who had defended Corinth with so much stubbornness, 
announced his intention to " fight or die here." On the 
next day, which was the first day of 1863, neither of the 
shattered armies was in a condition to make a serious 
attack. On the third day of the battle the Confederates, 
by a tremendous charge, drove back part of the left wing 
of Rosecrans's army, but they were soon cut to pieces 
and themselves driven back. After the two armies had 
bravely held their ground with varying fortunes for 
three days, Bragg retreated, and Rosecrans entered Mur- 
freesboro. Each army had lost about nine thousand in 
killed and wounded, besides 
those captured. 

In the summer and autumn 
of 1863, Rosecrans, by some 
well-planned manoeuvres, put 
Bragg at such disadvantage 
that he was forced to fall back 
from time to time until he had 
left Chattanooga in the hands of 
the Union troops. But Bragg 
received re-enforcements, and 
the great battle of Chickamauga was fought on the The battle of 

Chickamauga 

19th and 20th of September, 1863. It was a battle of 




BATTLES ABOUT CHATTANOOGA. 



332 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Battles at Chat- 
tanooga. 



charge and counter-charge. On the first day the Union 
army won considerable advantage ; but on the second 
day the right half of Rosecrans's army was broken, and 
it retreated in confusion toward Chattanooga. The utter 
rout of the Union army was prevented by General 
Thomas, whose division had also saved the army at Mur- 
freesboro. With extraordinary coolness he held the left 
wing against repeated assaults, and, when ammunition 
failed, his men used their bayonets to repel the Con- 
federate charges. Though Bragg's troops, by splendid 
fighting, had gained a great victory, Thomas, by the 
most brilliant defense of the war, kept them back 

long enough to enable Rosecrans to prepare for the 

defense of Chattanooga, to which place the Union 

troops retreated. 

Grant, who had gained great reputation by his 
Vicksburg campaign, was now given command of 
all the forces west of the mountains. Rosecrans 
was relieved, and Thomas, who was called "the 
Rock of Chickaniauga," was put in his place. Grant 
took immediate command of the besieged troops in 
Chattanooga, with Thomas next. 

Bragg having sent away a part of his army to attack 
Burnside in East Tennessee, Grant took advantage of 
this weakening of his force to attack Bragg in his front. 
The main body of Bragg's army was intrenched in 
Chattanooga Valley. Bragg also held Missionary Ridge, 
in his rear, and Lookout Mountain, to the southwest. 
Hooker attacked and carried Lookout Mountain on the 
morning of November 25, 1863, while a mist shut out 
the summit from the valley. This is sometimes called 
" The Battle above the Clouds." But Sherman, who had 



NASHVILLE AND ATLANTA. 



333 




E. JOHNSTON. 



previously carried an outlying hill at the north end of 
Missionary Ridge, was checked in his attempt to advance 
by the obstinate resistance of the Confederates under 
General Hardee. Grant, therefore, sent the army under 
Thomas out of Chattanooga to attack the Confeder- 
ates in front, with instructions to carry the first line 
and lie down. By a swift charge, under a severe 
fire, they carried the line at the foot of the mount- 
ain ; but the guns of the Confederates on the top t 
Missionary Ridge sent a galling fire upon them. 
Without orders one impatient regiment after an- 
other rushed up the hill. Bragg's troops made a 
vigorous resistance, but the eager assailants carried the 
line in six places, and the Confederate army was forced 
to retreat. 

Grant was now put in command of all the Union Sherman 

1 , » , . r 1 • Johnston. 

armies, and he took charge in person of the troops in saw Mour 
front of Washington, while Sherman was left to com- 
mand the Western army. Sherman, a man of incessant 
activity and abilit}- of many kinds, was confronted by 
the Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston, who had 
been appointed to succeed Bragg. Johnston was born 
in Virginia in 1807. He was graduated at West Point 
in 1829, and distinguished himself as an engineer and in 
active service during the Mexican War. He resigned in 
1 86 1, and entered the Confederate army, where he always 
displayed the greatest prudence and abilit}'. Sherman, 
by skillful manoeuvres, tried to force Johnston to fight 
in the open field ; but Johnston preferred to draw his 
antagonist farther south, so as to increase the diffi- 
culty of supplying his ami}-, and to compel Sherman to 
attack him behind breastworks. Many severe engage- 




334 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



X"* 


" "//^\M^^ 


Hood succeeds 


^^ft 


Johnston. Sher- 


man takes At- 


^X '/ i 


lanta. 


\^ 




Zts op \ 




THE CAMPAIGN 




BETWEEN NASH- 




VILLE AND ATLANTA 



ments were fought, but Johnston avoided a general 
battle. At length Sherman attacked Johnston at 
Kenesaw Mountain, but the Confederates re- 
pulsed him. 

The Confederate government, dissatis- 
fied with Johnston's long and cau- 
tious retreat before Sherman, re- 
moved him, and General Hood 
took his place. Hood be- 
lieved in sharp fighting, 
and several battles took 
place at various points 
about Atlanta, but they 
generally resulted in favor 



of the Union army. At length, Sherman got a consid- 
erable part of his force south of Atlanta, so that Hood 
was compelled to abandon that city or be shut up in it. 



CHAPTER LVI. 



FROM THE WILDERNESS TO PETERSBURG.- 
THE VALLEY. 



-THE WAR IN 



Grant confronts jj^ thg spHug of 1 864 Ulysscs S. Grant, who had 

taken Vicksburg and won the battle of Chattanooga, was 
put in command of all the armies of the Union. Grant 
was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822. He 
spent his bo3-hood on a farm. In 1839 he was appointed 
a cadet at West Point, from which he was graduated 
about the middle of his class in rank. As a lieutenant in 



FROM THE WILDERNESS TO PETERSBURG. 



335 



the Mexican War, he was conspicuous for bravery, tak- 
ing part in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, 
and the assault on Monterey. He also took part in the 
siege of Vera Cruz, and the 
succeeding battles of Scott's 
campaign. He resigned from 
the army in 1854 and en- 
gaged in farming, but was 
not successful. When the 
civil war broke out he was a 
clerk in the leather-store of 
his father in Galena, Illinois, 
on a small salary. He then 
became mustering officer for 
the State of Illinois, was ap- 
pointed colonel of the Twen- 
ty-first Regiment from that 
State, and thus entered on 
his great military career. 

We have seen that Grant left Sherman to command °""* '° ^'^^- 

ginia. 

in the West, while he took up his headquarters with 
Meade in front of Washington. The veteran Eastern 
armies that had fought so long against each other, be- 
tween Washington and Richmond, were now to fight 
to the death, each under the most famous general on its 
side. 

Robert Edward Lee, who now confronted General Robert e. lc 
Grant, was born in Virginia, June 19, 1807. He was 
graduated at West Point in 1829, second in his class. 
He distinguished himself as an engineer in the siege of 
Vera Cruz. He was for three years in command of the 
Military Academy at West Point. When his own State 




ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



rate battle 
he Wilder 



,,6 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

of Virginia seceded, he thought himself bound to go 
with it. He resigned his commission on the 20th of 
April, 1 861, and was made commander-in-chief of the 
Virginia State forces, and later a Confederate general. 
To his great ability was mostly due the stubbornness 
of the struggle carried on by the Confederates between 
Richmond and Washington. 

Under Grant and Meade, the 
Army of the Potomac moved for- 
ward toward Richmond. It en- 
countered Lee's army in a region 
of dense woods, full of under- 
growth, known as " The Wilder- 
ness." Grant's forces were much 
the more numerous, for by this 
time the South, which had put 
forth nearly its whole strength 
from the beginning, was becom- 
ing somewhat exhausted. On the 
other hand, Lee fought behind in- 
trenchments, and, in changing his 
position, moved on shorter lines than his opponent. For 
sixteen days, in the Wilderness and about Spottsylvania 
Court-House, the armies were so close to each other in 
the thick brush that the men had to be continually on 
guard, and so they got little chance for sleep. When 
they changed positions, the marching was generally done 
in the night, while the days witnessed the most tremen- 
dous fighting that had been seen since the battles of 
the great Napoleon. In sixteen days the Union army 
lost 37,500 men, and Lee's losses, though much less, 
were severe. 




ROBERT E LEE. 



FROM THE WILDERNESS TO PETERSBURG. 



ZZl 



Lee was not crushed, but Grant got nearer to Rich- Mana 
mond from time to time by secretly moving a part of 
the army from his right and marching it around to 
the rear of his other troops, and then pushing it as far 
ahead on his left as possible. By thus outflanking Lee, 
Grant compelled him to fall back, that he might not 
be cut off from Richmond and his supplies. But Lee 
always managed to fall back in time to be again be- 
tween Grant's army and Richmond. The two great 
generals and the two veteran armies were well matched, 
and neither could gain a complete victory. 

This fighting and this moving to the eastward and Coid Harbor, 
around Lee's flank were kept up with varying success 
until Grant got near to Richmond, when, on the 2d 
of June, 1864, at Cold Harbor, he attacked the Con- 
federate works along the whole line. 
The Union army was repulsed with 
a loss of nearly six thousand men in 
an hour. 

On the 13th of June, 1864, by an- 
other rapid march to the left. Gen- 
eral Grant's army began to cross the 
James River. As soon as over, they 
made an attempt to capture Peters- 
burg, in order to cut off one source 
of supplies and re-enforcements for 
Richmond. The outer works near 
Petersburg were carried, but the Con- 
federates fell back to new lines, and received re-enforce- Attempt to take 

T^i 1*1 /■ 1 1 Petersburg. 

ments. The attempt to drive them out of these by 
assault failed. The Union troops now built trenches 
close up to the Confederate works, and the two armies 




338 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



Explosion of the 
mine. Attack re- 
pulsed. 



held these frowning lines, face to face, for nine months, 
until within a few days of the close of the war. 

Soon after the siege began, a mine was dug from 
the trenches of the Union army under an angle of 
the Confederate works. By this mine a part of the 
works was blown up on the 30th of July. An attack 




was made immediately after, but it was badly man- 
aged, and only resulted in the loss of a great many 
Union soldiers. 
Hunter marches In all the ycars of the war there had been a smaller 

and tries to take campaign Carried on in the Valley of Virginia. This fer- 

Lynchburg. .,,,,., r ^ • r^ 

tile valley lies between two ranges 01 mountains. Its 
northern end reaches the Potomac not very far away 
from Washington. In this valley the Confederate gen- 



FROM THE WILDERXF.SS TO PETERSBURG. -. ^q 

eral Breckinridge defeated General Sigel at New Mar- 
ket on the 15th of Mav, 1864. General Hunter, who 
took command of the Union troops, defeated the Confed- 
erate general Iniboden at Piedmont twenty days later. 
Hunter, with eighteen thousand men, pushed for Lynch- 
burg, which was a place of the greatest importance. 
He destroyed railroads and worked much damage, but 
Lynchburg was re-enforced in time to save it. Finding 
his reti"eat down the Valle\' cut off, Hunter saved his 
starving army by making his way into the Kanawha 
Valley. This took him to the west of the Alleghany 
Mountains, and quite out of the Valley. 

The Valley was thus left open to Early, who marciied ^^'''y marches 

■' ^ - down the Valley, 

a Confederate force down to Harper's Ferry and across and f'^s to take 

Washington. 

into Maryland. Early defeated a small force under Gen- 
eral Lew Wallace at Monocacy on the 7th of July, 
and pushed straight for Washington, which he might 
have captured at a dash had he been a little quicker ; 
but re-enforcements from Grant's army marched ^ V. 

into the works as the assault began, and he was ' ,. \ 

repulsed. He retreated again up the Valley, pur- L ' ; /' 

sued by a strong force. But, when a part of the ' ^ 

T T ■ . '11 1 11 y^ JUBAL EARLY. 

Union troops was withdrawn and sent back to Grant, 
Early attacked and defeated those under Crook at Kerns- 
town, and threw his cavalry across the Potomac again, 
and into Pennsylvania, where they burned Chambers- 
burg. In getting back into Virginia, this cavalry force 
was attacked and defeated. 

General Philip H. Sheridan was now given charge of sheddan in the 
the Union troops on this line. Sheridan was for a long at Winchester 
time very wary, determined not to risk a battle against 
an experienced general like Early without a good chance 




340 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



for success. When Early's force had been weakened by 
the sending of part of it to Petersburg, Sheridan attacked 
him and won the battle of Opequon, or Winchester, on 
the 19th of September, 1864. Three days later, Sheri- 
dan attacked Early in his trenches at Fisher's Hill, 
having sent a force around to suddenly assail him on 
one side or flank, while the rest of 
the Union troops charged the works 
in front. Earl3''s men, attacked on 
two sides, were routed and driven 
farther up the Valley to the south. 

Sheridan burned all the barns 
filled with grain, and carried off all 
the stock in the Valle}', to prevent the 
Confederates from returning. But 
when Sheridan went back toward the 
Potomac, Early, largely re-enforced, 
followed him through this land of 
Destruction in the Starvation. While Sheridan was absent from his troops. 

Valley. Battle of ,.,,..,. , 

Cedar Creek. a part of Early s iorce, leavmg behmd their swords, can- 
teens, and everything that could make a noise, moved 
in the night along a lonely path until they got around 
on the flank and behind the Union troops, and surprised 
them while they were asleep. Early, at the same time, 
with the rest of his force, attacked Sheridan's army in 
front. This was the beginning of the battle of Cedar 
Creek. The Confederates defeated and drove back the 
Union troops for four miles, capturing many prisoners. 
Sheridan, hearing the firing, put spurs to his horse, and 
rode up the Valley, calling to his fleeing soldiers, " Come, 
boys, we're going back ! " His presence turned the tide, 
and by night he had defeated Early once more. A few 




FROM THE WILDERNESS TO PETERSBURG. 



341 



smaller actions ended the campaign, for most of the 
troops on both sides were needed at Petersburg, where 
the last struggle of all was to take place. 

Philip Henry Sheridan, who decided the long struggle she 
in the Valley, was a native of Albany, N. Y., and was 
born March 6, 1831. He was graduated at West Point 
in 1853. He first won distinction as a commander of 
cavalry, and he showed great qualities at Perryville and 
INIurfreesboro, after which he was made a major-general. 
At Chickamauga and in the battles about Chattanooga 
he further distinguished himself. His campaign in the 
Valley of Virginia and the part he played in the closing 
scenes made him one of the most famous generals of 
the war. He succeeded Sherman at the head of the 
army, and in 1888 he was made a full general. Only 
Grant and Sherman had attained that rank in the 
United States Army before him. He died at Nonquitt, 
Massachusetts, August 5, 1888. 




342 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Sherman's march 
begun. 



Hood ii 
nessee. 
of Fran 




Battle of Nash- 



CHAPTER LVII. 

CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

In Chapter LV we have seen that Sherman capt- 
ured Atlanta, having in opposition to him the. Confeder- 
ate general Hood. The latter was a bold man, and he 
determined to force Sherman to fall back into Tennessee 
again, by going to his rear and cutting off his supplies 
from the North. But Sherman, knowing that the re- 
sources of the South were almost exhausted, concluded 
to risk a blow that might end the war. Leaving the 
troops in Tennessee under command of General Thomas, 
he set out from Atlanta with the rest of his army, to 
march southward through the heart of the Confederac}'. 
Hood, refusing to follow Sherman into Georgia, 
pushed northward into Tennessee, resolved to strike 
Thomas before he could get his forces together. 
He attacked a part of General Thomas's troops, 
under General Schofield, at Franklin, in Tennessee. 
The Confederates made the most desperate charges, 
carrying, at first, a portion of the Union lines, 
but Schofield succeeded in holding his works 
long enough to get safely across the Harpeth River. 
He then fell back and joined Thomas at Nashville. 
Hood soon encamped before Nashville, where, after 
a rather long delay, he was attacked on the morning 
of December 15th by Thomas's whole army. A two 
days' battle ensued, which resulted in the utter defeat 
of Hood's army. This was a blow from which the ex- 
hausted Confederac}' could not hope to recover. 



CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



343 



nan destroy- 
i Georgia, 
inah taken. 



While Hood and Thomas were manoeuvring in Ten- sh 

in( 

nessee, Sherman and his army were marching through sa 
the Confederacy. His men were consuming supplies 
that would otherwise have sustained Lee in Richmond. 
Railroads of the greatest military value were utterly- 
destroyed, by making fires of the cross-ties and then 
heating and twisting the rails. Nothing could have 
tended more to bring the war to an end than the 
breaking of the railways, on which food and soldiers 
must be moved. Just before the battle of Nashville 
was fought, Sherman reached Savannah and laid siege to 
it, having been about a month without communication 
with the North. On the 20th of December the Con- 
federates evacuated the city, and Sherman occupied it. 

William Tecumseh Sherman, 

whose capture of Atlanta and 
march to the sea made him one of 
the most illustrious figures of the 
civil war, was born in Ohio in 
1820, and graduated at West Point 
in 1840. He resigned from the army 
in 1853, and engaged in the banking 
business in San Francisco. Later he 
practiced law in Kansas. When the 
war broke out he was superintend- 
ent of the militarv academy of Lou- 
isiana. He was reappointed to the 

WLLI^M TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 

army in 1861. At the close of the 

war he was next in rank to General Grant, and he became 

general of the army when Grant was elected President. 

In order to eive Sherman, when he should move capture of Fort 

'^ Fisher and Wil- 

northward from Savannah, a new base of supplies from mington. 




344 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the sea, and in order to stop blockade-running, an expedi- 
tion was sent to capture Wilmington, in North Carolina. 
Fort Fisher, which guarded the entrance to this place, 
was bombarded by a fleet and then carried by assault, 
on January 15, 1865. By way of Wilmington, General 
Schofield, with a part of Thomas's army from Tennes- 
see, now pushed up to Goldsboro, in North Carolina, to 
meet Sherman when he should _ 
reach that place. 

On the 1st of Februar}-, 1S65, 
Sherman's tough veterans left 
Savannah and moved north- 
ward through the Caro- 




Movements 
P»tersburg. 



linas, 
in rain and 
through over- 
flowing swamps. 
Columbia was 
taken and burned. The Union army pushed on north- 
ward. General Sherman having opposed to him his old 
antagonist. General Joseph E. Johnston. Johnston did 
not give battle till Sherman had reached Averysboro, in 
North Carolina. Here the Confederates were defeated ; 
but at Bentonville, on the 19th of March, Johnston came 
near to defeating one column of Sherman's army before 
re-enforcements could reach it. 

Sherman, by his marches, had broken to pieces the 
interior lines of travel in the Southern States, and greatly 
added to the troubles of Lee in Richmond. Neither re- 



CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



345 



enforcements nor supplies could be had without difficul- 
ty. The Southern people, who had bravely suffered the 
greatest hardships, were now disheartened. Lee began 
to consider how he could retreat. But Grant, whose 
force was more than twice as large as Lee's, moved 
Sheridan's command around to the south of the Con- 
federate works, in order, if possible, to prevent the 
dwindling Confederate army from getting away. 

Lee was everywhere outnumbered, and his men were Battu of Five 

Forks. Lee's 

beaten and captured, especially in the battle of Five works carried. 
Forks, on the ist of April. He had weakened his force 
in front of Grant, by drawing out troops to keep Sheri- 
dan from cutting the railroads that brought him sup- 
plies, and, while the battle of Five Forks was taking 
place, some of the Confederate works at Petersburg were 
carried by assault, and others were taken the next day. 

The night follow- 
ing, that is, the 2d 
of April, Lee began 
his retreat from 
Richmond. His 

first object was to 
reach Danville, Vir- 
ginia, and from that place to unite 
with Johnston. But, finding a Union 
force between him and Danville, his 
now starving army was turned toward Lynchburg. 
Sheridan's cavalry cut him off from that place, and on 
the 9th of April, 1865, Lee surrendered his army to 
General Grant, at Appomatto.x Court-House. 

Johnston could make no stand alone, and sixteen davs Johnston surren- 
ders. Close of the 

later he surrendered to General Sherman. The smaller war. 




Lee's retreat and 
surrender, April 
9, 1865. 



346 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



bodies of Confederate troops yielded soon after, and 
the four terrible years of war were at last ended. The 
soldiers on both sides returned to their homes. No war 
so vast had ever been seen in modern times, and no 
braver men had ever fought. The impressions left by 
the sufferings of the civil war have produced a strong 
sentiment in favor of peace. 



CHAPTER LVIII. 

TRAITS AND RESULTS OF THE WAR. — DEATH OF LINCOLN. 

The Trent affair. The war led to somc Complications in the foreign 

Danger of war 

with England. relations of the United States. Both in England and 
France there were statesmen who were jealous of the 
rapid growth of this country. They were afraid that the 
United States would become more powerful than the 
European nations, and they would have been pleased to 
see it divided. In 1861 this hostile feeling in England 
was very much increased by what is called " the Trent 
affair." Mason and Slidell were sent as ambassadors from 
the Confederate States — Mason to England, and Slidell 
to France. They ran the blockade, getting out of the 
harbor of Charleston during a dark night, and reached 
Havana. From Havana they sailed in the Trent, an 
English steamer. Captain Wilkes, of an American man- 
of-war, stopped the Trent and took Mason and Slidell 
from it, carrying them prisoners to the United States. 
This act produced great excitement in England, and 
for a while war seemed imminent between the two coun- 



TRAITS AXD RESULTS OF THE WAR. ■,.>, 

tries. But, on the demand of Great Britain, the United 
States surrendered the ambassadors, as improperly capt- 
ured. 

The United States Navy had been rapidly enlarg^ed Blockade of ths 

Southern coast. 

after the war began. One of its principal duties was 
to blockade the Southern ports, to keep the Confed- 
erates from getting arms and other supplies from for- 
eign countries. Many fast-sailing English ships were 
engaged in running this blockade. These, b}' the law 
of nations, were subject to capture by United States 
vessels, and many were taken, but the high prices paid 
for the commodities that were got in, justified the risk. 
These blockade-runners generally entered the Southern 
ports at night. But, when the chief sea-ports of the 
South were captured one after another by the navy 
and the land-forces of the Union, blockade-running was 
gradually stopped, and the South experienced greater 
and greater difficulty in clothing an army and in find- 
ing materials of war. 

The Confederate government could not get much of confederate navy 

^ ° The Alabama and 

a navy afloat from ports so well blockaded, but ships "the Alabama 
were built in England and secretly sent to sea. These 
received Confederate commissions, and almost succeeded 
in ruining American commerce. The most famous of 
these ships, called the " Alabama," was commanded by 
Captain Raphael Semmes. It was built in England, and 
it captured in all sixty-seven merchant and whaling ships. 
In a fight with the United States man-of-war Kearsarge, 
the Alabama was sunk in the English Channel, June 19, 
1864. After the war the United States set up claims 
against the British government on account of the dam- 
ages done to American commerce by the Alabama and 



348 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Action of F 
during the v 



Other Confederate cruisers built in England. The " Ala- 
bama claims," as they were called, after years of discus- 
sion, were submitted to a court of arbitration which sat 
in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1873, and condemned Eng- 
land to pay to the United States $15,500,000. 

Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, was also jeal- 
ous of the growth of the United States, and he availed 
himself of the civil war to establish the Archduke 
Maximilian, of Austria, as Emperor of Mexico ; but, 
after the close of the war in this country, French sup- 
port of Maximilian was withdrawn, and the empire was 
overthrown by the Mexican people. Powerful ships 
were built in France for the Confederate government, 
with the secret countenance of the emperor ; but the 
energetic proceedings of John Bigelow, United States 
minister at the French court, prevented all of them from 
sailing but one, and this got away so near to the close 
of the war as to be of no service. 
Legal-tender xhe expcHscs of the War cau never be fully estimated, 

backs." The United States Government borrowed money on 
interest, by giving bonds to pay after a certain number 
of years. A large part of this debt has now been paid. 
But, as another means of borrowing money, " legal- 
tender notes " were issued ; that is, paper bills, which by 
law could be used to pay debts and taxes, instead of 
coins. These legal-tender notes were printed on a pecul- 
iar green paper, and got the name of "greenbacks." 
When a great number of them had been issued, and the 
dangers to the government increased, the value of this 
paper money declined, until at one time a dollar of it 
was really worth less than half a dollar. However, as 
the greenbacks were by law good for the payment of 



papi 



'J) 

% 

o 

z 

D 

ui 

< 

UJ 
Q 

uj 

O 

o 




TRAITS AND RESULTS OF THE WAR. 



349 



debts, they were used instead of the more valuable silver 
and gold, which for seventeen years disappeared entirely 
from general use. The depreciation in the value of 
money caused a great apparent rise in the values of com- 
modities. Long after the war closed, in 1879, the gov- 
ernment began to redeem these legal-tender bills in silver 
and gold. This was called " the resumption of specie 
payments." But the fact that gold or silver was to be 
paid for them had made greenbacks by this time worth 
as much as coin, and people generally preferred to keep 
the paper money. 

The Confederate government also resorted to loans, confederal, 
some of which were based on a pledge of the cotton- 
crop of the country. But the bonds became almost 
valueless as the future of the Confederacy grew hope- 
less. A great deal of Confederate legal-tender money 
was also issued. This took the place of coin, and de- 
clined in value until twenty dollars of it would not buy 
one of gold. When the Confederacy was overthrown, 
this money became of no value. The rapid decline in 
the value of its paper money was one of the greatest 
difficulties the Confederate government had to con- 
tend with in its last years. To pay its soldiers and to 
provide materials of war, the Confederacy could only 
issue paper notes, of which there were already too 
many. 

To avoid confusion, we have preferred to tell the stoi"y second election 

r , ... . , , . , . . of Lincoln, 1864. 

01 the military operations of the war without mentioning 
the political affairs of the time. In 1864 the Republican 
party nominated President Lincoln for re-election, and 
Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, a Southern Union man, 
for Vice-President. The Democratic party nominated 



350 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Assassination 
President Lir 
coin, 1865. 



General George B. McClellan, and for a time it seemed 
that the discouragement of the Northern people with 
the long continuance of the war might elect McClel- 
lan. But the success of Sherman in taking Atlanta, 
the capture of the forts near Mobile by the fleet under 
Farragut, and the successes of the Union army under 
Sheridan in the Valley of Virginia, removed all doubt 
about the result, and Lincoln received all the electoral 
votes cast except those of Kentucky, Delaware, and 

New Jersey. 

Lincoln began his sec- 
ond term of office in 
March, 1865, while Sherman 
was marching northward 
through the Carolinas, and 
when the close of the war 
was alread}' in sight. When 
Lee surrendered, Lincoln's 
mind was already revolv- 
ing plans for conciliating 
those who had been op- 
posed to him, and for re- 
storing the government at 
the South. But, while the 
President was sitting with 
his family in a box at a theatre in Washington, John 
Wilkes Booth, one of a band of conspirators, approached 
him from behind and shot him, and then leaped to the 
stage, crying, " Sic semper tyrannis ! " which means, 
" Thus alwa3'S with tyrants," and escaped. Booth was 
afterward overtaken, and killed in resisting arrest. Lin- 
coln died on the 15th of April, the day after he was shot. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



DEATH OF LIXCOLM. 



351 



He was deeply mourned, because he had shown himself 
a man of great wisdom and goodness. 

Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, February 12, Abraham 
1809. His father removed to Indiana when he was a lit- 
tle boy, and while that country was exceedingly wild and 
rough. The family lived in a half-faced camp — that is, a 
cabin with one side left out and the fire built out-of-doors, 
in front of the open side. Abraham endured many pri- 
vations, and struggled hard to get an education. The 
schools were few and the teachers ignorant, but Lincoln 
trained his own mind by carefully thinking out every sub- 
ject which puzzled him, and he spent his spare time in 
reading. He worked on a farm, went to New Orleans 
on a fiat-boat, was clerk in a country store, learned and 
practiced surveying, and then studied law. He served 
several terms in the Legislature of Illinois, and was a 
member of Congress. He became a leading lawyer and 
politician in his State, and gained a national fame by a 
series of debates, in which he was engaged with Senator 
Douglas in 1858. His integrity, his moderation, and his 
strong speeches brought him the nomination of President, 
and the rest of his history is that of the country. 

Lincoln's assassination was regretted at the South, Release of jeffer 

* son Davis. 

where his kindliness was coming to be known, and where 
the people feared that his death might lead to measures 
of retaliation. But the war was closed without acts of 
revenge, and nobody was put to death for a political 
offense. Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confed- 
eracy,, who had been captured in Georgia at the close of 
the war, was arraigned before a court on a charge of 
high treason. He was confined in Fortress Monroe for 
two years, when he was released without being tried. 



2^2 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

CHAPTER LIX. 

POLITICAL EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR. 
The question of The war Settled two questions long debated in this 

state independ- 
ence settled. country, that of State sovereignty and that of slavery. 

From the beginning of the government it had been dis- 
puted whether or not a State might act in a sovereign 
way in opposition to the United States government. 
The war answered " No " to this question. Though 
there are yet, and perhaps always will be, differences of 
opinion regarding the distribution of power between the 
Federal Government and the government of the several 
States, it is generally conceded that the result of the war 
definitely settled that the Union of States is not a com- 
pact which may be broken by the withdrawal of indi- 
vidual States ; that the nation is to be regarded as one 
and indivisible ; and that laws of Congress can only be 
annulled by judicial decisions. On the other hand, 
recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United 
States show a care of the rights of the several States 
as against infringements by the laws or courts of the 
United States. It was accident and the jealous}' of the 
colonies toward one another that gave us this nicely 
balanced federal system ; but its elasticity and its recog- 
nition of the right of local self-government probably 
render it the best possible for a people spread over so 
wide a territory and living under conditions so dissimi- 
lar, and so jealous of personal freedom. 
The question of Thc Emancipation Proclamation had only abolished 

slavery disap- 

oears. slavcry in those States and districts at that time resist- 



POLITICAL EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR. 



353 



ing the United States government. But the thirteenth 
amendment to the Constitution, which was adopted at 
the close of the war, and ratified in December, 1865, for- 
bade slavery in all parts of the country forever. One of 
the first effects of this great revolution was the destruc- 
tion of the social and industrial system to which the 
Southern States had been accustomed for two centuries. 
This necessarily entailed a great deal of financial loss and 
personal suffering, with some social disorder. But the ul- 
timate benefits of the change are now almost universally 
recognized. To the unity of the national life the change 
is of great advantage. The question of slavery was a 
source of difficulty and division from the adoption of the 
Constitution until its disappearance. It is not likely that 
any new question will ever divide the people on sectional 
lines. Since the abolition of slavery in the United States, 
the system has disappeared from every civilized nation. 

A great question of history was also decided by the But one great 

^ ^ -' -' power in North 

war. It was settled that the heart of North America America, 
is to be occupied by but one great power. Had there 
been more than one, the resources of the people might 
have been wasted and their advancement checked by 
standing armies, and wars happening from time to time. 
Without doubt the United States will act a much greater 
part in the history of the world and the advancement of 
civilization than its fi-agments could have done if broken 
apart and divided by international jealousies. 

On the death of Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, the Vice- Andrew Johnson 

President. 

President, succeeded to the presidency. There soon 
grew up a difference between Johnson and the Republi- 
can Congress in regard to the measures to be adopted 
for the reconstruction of government in the Southern 



354 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




DREW JOHNSON 



States. Congress required, among other things, that 

every State which had seceded should admit the negroes 

to vote, before the representatives of the State should 

be again admitted to Congress. President Johnson 

held that the States had not lost the right of 

representation by secession and war. He did 

not think that Congress had a right to refuse 

admission to lawfully elected representatives. 

The difference between Johnson and Con- 
gress, on several points in regard to recon- 
struction, resulted in an effort by Congress to 
limit the power of the President to remove offi- 
President John- cers. The RepubHcaus were more than two thirds of 

son impeached. 

each House, so that they could make laws in spite of 
the veto of President Johnson. They passed a law for- 
bidding him to make removals from office except by 
consent of the Senate. This law Johnson refused to 
obey. The House of Representatives voted to impeach 
the President ; that is, to bring him to trial in order to 
have him removed as unfit to hold his office. Such a 
charge must be made by the House of Representatives, 
and the Senate is the court which has to decide the 
case. As less than two thirds of the Senate voted to 
remove him, Johnson remained in office to the end of 
his term. 
Grant elected J,-, j ggg Qeueral Grant was elected President, as the 

Preiident, 1868. 

candidate of the Republicans. The Democratic candi- 
date was Horatio Seymour, of New York. The election 
turned on the dispute over measures for reconstructing 
the Southern States. 

During Grant's first administration, in 1870, the last 
of the States that had belonged to tlje Confederacy com- 



POLITICAL EVENTS SIXCE THE CIVIL WAR. 



;55 



States readmit- 

the States were now represented in Congress for the first ««<• «o congre... 

Negro suffrage 

time since South Carolina had seceded in i860. In this established, 
same year, 1870, the fifteenth amendment to the Constitu- 
tion was ratified. This gave to the negroes the right to 
vote in every State in the Union. 

Various causes produced in the South disorder and Disorders «t the 

'^ South, followed 

bad government for some years, but these are too much by prosperity, 
matters of recent political discussion to be treated his- 
torically. The war, too, had wasted the resources of 
the country and left the people in poverty. A better 
state of things has ensued, and the Southern people have 
gradually entered on a career of peace and great pros- 
perity. Under the old social S3'stem of the South, agri- 
culture was almost the only form of labor profitable ; 
but since the war cotton-mills have sprung up, and iron 
manufactures have been greatly developed in the South- 
ern States. 

In 1872 there was considerable dissatisfaction with Grant re-eiected. 
General Grant's administration of the government, and 
a portion of the Republicans formed a new party, which 
they called the " Liberal Republican " party. They 
nominated Horace Greeley for President. The Demo- 
cratic party accepted Greeley as its candidate also, but 
Grant was re-elected by a large majority. 

In 1876 the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Disputed election 

• ■ •: of 1876 decided In 

Hayes, of Ohio, for President. The Democrats nomi- favor of Hayea. 
nated Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. The election was 
a close one, and the country' came near to being thrown 
into a distressing confusion by the condition of the South- 
ern State governments. In some of these were " return- 
ing -boards," or committees, which had the right to 



356 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




RUTHERFORD 



revise the election returns, 
and throw out such as they 
thought had been affected 
by fraud or violence. By 
the votes cast, Louisiana 
had given a majority for 
Tilden. But the Republi- 
cans claimed that certain 
districts had been carried 
b}' intimidating the ne- 
groes and by fraud. The 
returns from these were 
thrown out by the returning-board, and the vote of the 
State was given to Hayes. This gave a majority of 
one. The most exciting debates ensued in Congress, 
which had finally to decide the matter. As the Re- 
publicans had a majority in the Senate and the Demo- 
crats a majority in the House, the two bodies could not 
agree. The question was at 
length referred to fifteen com- 
missioners, eight of whom 
voted to give the election to 
Hayes. 

In 1880 General Winfield S. 
Hancock, who had won renown 
as a brilliant division command- 
er in the Army of the Potomac, 
was nominated for President 
by the Democrats. General 
James A. Garfield, of Ohio, 
whose distinction was chiefly 
due to the ability he had 




POLITICAL EVEXTS SIXCE THE CIVIL JVAR. 



357 




shown in debate on the floor of Congress, was nomi- 
nated by the Republicans and elected. Three months 
after President Garfield was in- 
augurated, on the 2d of July, 1881, 
he was shot and mortally wound- 
ed by a disappointed office-seeker. 
Garfield lived eighty days after he 
was shot, and died on September 
19, 1881. His assassin was tried 
for murder and hanged. 

Chester A. Arthur, of New 
York, had been elected as Vice- 
President when Garfield was 
chosen President. On the death of 
Garfield, Arthur succeeded to the Chester a, arthur. 

presidency, and filled out the unexpired term for which 
Garfield had been elected, according to the Constitution. 

In 1884 the Re- 
publicans nominated 
James G. Blaine for 
President. His dis- 
tinction had been 
gained chiefly as 
Speaker of the 
House of Represen- 
tatives and Senator 
from Maine. The 
Democi^ats nominat- 
ed Grover Cleve- 
land, then popular 
as Governor of New 
York. After an un- 



Elect 


ion of Gar- 


field, 


1880. His as 


sassi 


nation, 1881. 




358 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



usually severe struggle, remarkable especially for its 
personalities ^nd bitterness, and a very close election, 
Cleveland was chosen. The Democratic party thus re- 
turned to power for the first time since the election of 
Lincoln in i860. 
Political changes. The beginning of Cleveland's administration may be 

said to mark the opening of a new era in American poli- 
tics. The period of reconstruction after the war had 
passed, the questions growing out of the war and the 
enfranchisement of the negroes were becoming less im- 
portant, and the attention of the public was gradually 
turning to questions of administration and finance. 
Civil-service re- For many years public-spirited men had been urging 
the reform of the civil service. From the time of Presi- 
dent Jackson a bad custom had prevailed of appointing 
men to office under the government as a reward for serv- 
ices to the party in power. This involved the removal 
of a large majority of the employees of the government 
whenever the new President was of the party opposed 
to the one retiring. Such a method of bestowing office 
tended to degrade elections into a mere scramble be- 
tween would-be place-holders, and so to corrupt the 
government. It also compelled the government to sup- 
port a multitude of office-holders unfitted by character 
or experience for the work to be done. The Civil Serv- 
ice law, intended to remedy this abuse, was adopted in 
1883. The first change of parties after its adoption, 
which took place when Cleveland was inaugurated, gave 
an opportunity to prove the merits of the new system, 
and its application has since been gradually extended. 
The question of xhc Qucstion most agitated during Cleveland's ad- 

ths tariff. ^ & & 

ministration was that of the tariff. Very early in the 



i^ 



POLITICAL EVENTS SIXCE THE CIVIL WAR. 



359 



history' of the government there were two opinions on 
this subject. One class of statesmen has maintained that 
American manufactures should be protected by levying 
high duties on articles made abroad, in order that the 
American market may be kept chiefly for the products 
of American labor. The other class maintains that high 
protective duties are unjust to the American consumer, 
and of little, if any, benefit to the manufacturer. They 
hold that the tariff should be used wholly or chiefl)' to 
raise the money needed to support the government. 
This was a main point of division between the Whigs 
and Democrats before the civil war. 

At the assembling of Congress in December, 1887, the Tariff debate of 
President sent to that body a message remarkable among 
documents of its kind in that it was wholly confined to 
the discussion of a reduction of the tariff on account of 
the accumulation of money in the treasury from excess 
of revenue. In accordance with the recommendations 
of this message, a bill reducing the duties on certain 
articles and putting other articles on the free list was 
introduced to the House by the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee. Roger Q. Mills, of Texas, was chairman of this 
committee, and the bill is known as the "Mills Bill." 
It passed the House of Representatives. In the Senate 
a substitute bill was introduced as a Republican meas- 
ure, but, after the longest session in the history of the 
country, Congress adjourned without either bill having 
become a law. 

Meantime the canvass for President opened in June Harrison elected 
by the nomination of President Cleveland for re-elec- 
tion. The Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison, 
of Indiana. Harrison was elected. 



lident. 



360 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




Differences \ 
foreign natio 



Benjamin Harrison was a grandson of William H. 
Harrison, ninth President. He was born in Ohio in 
1833, and died March 13, 1901. He entered the 
arm)' at the outbreak of the war as second lieuten- 
ant, and rose to be brigadier-general. He was 
afterward a member of the United States Senate. 
At the first session of Congress after the be- 
ginning of Harrison's administration the so-called 
" McKinley Bill " was introduced and passed as a 
Republican measure. The general tendency of the act 
was to increase the duties on many articles so as to check 
their importation. The principle of reciprocity was in- 
troduced into this bill ; that is to sa}', the President was 
given power to suspend the duties on certain imports 
from any country granting a like concession in favor of 
articles exported from this countr}'. At the elections for 
members of the House of Representatives in 1890 a large 
majority opposed to the McKinlev tariff was chosen. 

In Harrison's administration difficulties arose between 
the United States and Italy on account of the killing of 
Italian subjects by lynch law in New Orleans, and be- 
tween this countr\- and Chile on account of outrages com- 
mitted on American sailors at Valparaiso. The United 
States finally paid a money indemnity to Italy ; and the 
difficulty wilh Chile was adjusted by the paj^ment of a 
money indemnity by that country to the United States. 
Differences between this country and England having 
reference to the protection of seals in Alaskan waters 
are in process of settlement at this writing. 

The decline in the value of silver has produced much 
discussion of what is known as the Silver Question. By the 
law of 1890 the United States Government was obliged 



POLITICAL EVEXTS SINCE THE Cll'IL WAR. ogj 

to purchase at market rates 4,500,000 ounces of silver 
every month. This law did not restore silver to its 
former value. Unsuccessful attempts have been made 
to establish a free coinage system, under which any 
owner of silver may deposit it in the mint and have it 
made into dollars. 

In order to avoid election bribery and other preva- Baiiot refon 
lent abuses, thirty-five States have in the past few years 
adopted what is known as the Australian ballot system 
or some modification of it. 

In March, 1891, after more than fifty years of agita- Internationa 

... copyright. 

tion of the question, an mternational copyright law was 
passed, giving to foreign authors property rights in their 
productions when printed in this country. 

The tariff was again the main question in the presi- Election of 
dential election of 1892, when Harrison and Cleveland 
were once more the opposing candidates. Cleveland was 
elected. 

There was financial distress, with a partial stagnation The wiuon 

tariff. 

of business, at this time, which by some was attributed 
largely to the silver law of 1890. In August, 1893, that 
law was repealed ; and the next year a new tarif? bill 
was passed, called the " Wilson Bill," which reduced 
many of the duties and abolished the reciprocity features 
of the McKinley tariff. 

In 1896 those who were directlv or indirectly inter- Free-siiver 1 

tion. 

ested in the production of silver, and those who be- 
lieved that free coinage of it would benefit them by 
advancing wages and stimulating business, obtained a 
majority in the Democratic National Convention and 
nominated William J. Bryan, of Nebraska, for President, 
on a platform declaring for the free and unlimited coin- 



362 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



gold. 




WILLIAM MCKINLEY. 



The Dingle 
tariff. 



age of silver at the ratio of si.xteen to one. The market 
value of silver then was about one thirtieth that of 
The Republican Convention nominated William 
McKinley, of Ohio, on a platform declaring that 
the gold standard should be maintained. A 
small body of Democrats, who were opposed 
to free coinage of silver, but would not vote 
a Republican ticket, nominated John M. 
Palmer, of Illinois. Mr. McKinley was elect- 
ed, receiving in the electoral college two 
hundred and seventy-one votes, against one 
y hundred and seventy-six for Mr. Bryan. 

Immediately on coming into ofifice, Presi- 
dent McKinley called a special session of Con- 
gress for a revision of the revenue laws. After 
a discussion that lasted four months. Congress in 
July passed a new tariff, called the " Dingley Bill," which 
increased the duties on many articles, but not to equal the 
McKinley tariff. One other monetary act of this adminis- 
tration was notable. In 1900 Congress passed the Gold 
Standard Bill, which reaffirms the gold dollar as the unit 
of value, and makes it the duty of the Secretar}' of the 
Treasury to keep all our money equal in value with gold. 
Early in 1893 the Queen of the Hawaiian Islands had 
abdicated, because of a successful insurrection, which 
was aided by forces from an American man-of-war. A 
petition for annexation to the United States followed, 
and President Harrison sent to the Senate a treaty for 
that purpose ; but before .it was acted upon, President 
Cleveland withdrew it, giving as a reason that the rev- 
olution had been effected, not by the majority of the 
people themselves, but by United States forces. He 



POLITICAL EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR. ^5^ 

ofiered to replace the Queen on her throne, if she would 
promise not to punish the insurgents, but she rejected 
the offer, and in July, 1894, a provisional republican 
government was proclaimed. A new treaty of annexa- 
tion was negotiated in 1897, and was finally ratified in 
July, 1898. 

In IQOO the presidential election turned substantiallv R^-eiection of 

^ ^ ' McKinley. 

on the same issue, free silver, as in 1896, with the ad- 
ditional question of the wisdom of annexing territory 
beyond the sea. McKinley and Biyan were again the 
principal candidates, and McKinley was elected by in- 
creased majorities. 



CHAPTER LX. 

WAR WITH SPAIN. 

Spain had long: held as colonies the West India islands suffering 

* Cuba. 

of Cuba and Porto Rico and the Philippines in the Pa- 
cific, and her bad government and extortionate taxes had 
led to many rebellions. In 1897-98 both Cuba and the 
Philippines were in a state of insurrection, and in Cuba 
the Spanish commander, failing to subdue the guerrilla 
bands, resorted to what was called reconcentration, which 
consisted in compelling the native families to leave their 
country homes and come together in towns. This pro- 
duced in a little while the most awful scenes of suffering, 
disease, and death, the victims being mainly women and 
children, while it did nothing toward subduing the insur- 
rection. It was estimated that four hundred and fifty 
thousand Cubans thus perished. Sympathy for the Cu- 



364 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




the Ma 



bans was strong in the United States, and its expression 
aroused angry resentment among the Spaniards in Ha- 
vana. The American war ship Maine 
was accordingly sent thither to pro- 
tect American interests, and was 
anchored at a spot designated 
__ by the Spanish authorities in 
the harbor of Havana. In 
~ *" the evening of February K, 

THE MAINE. =■ ^3. 

1898, she was blown up and 
sank almost immediately. Of three hundred and sixty 
men constituting her officers and crew, two hundred 
and sixty-six Avere either killed or drowned, and sixty 
Destruction of othcrs wcrc wounded. It was the general belief among 
Americans that the disaster was caused by a subma- 
rine mine, placed there and exploded by Spanish treach- 
er}^ and this belief was strengthened by the report of 
a commission of inquiry made up of four American 
naval officers. It was seen that war with Spain was 
imminent, and Congress placfed $50,000,000 at the dis- 
posal of the President for the national defense. The 
United States Government had tried to feed the starving 
Cubans, and had ofTered to mediate between the Spanish 
Government and the insurgents, but this offer had been 
declined. The American people complained not only of 
the inhumanity of the Spanish operations in Cuba, but 
that American commerce was hindered, and that they 
were at constant expense in preventing, by means of their 
naval forces, infractions of the laws of neutrality. 

On April nth President McKinley sent to Congress a 
message setting forth the whole situation, and a few days 
later Congress adopted a joint resolution declaring that 



M'A/? WITH SPAIN. 



365 



the people of Cuba were, and of right ought to be, free 
and independent, and demanding that Spain at once with- 
draw her forces from the island and relinquish her au- 
thority there. This resolution, which constituted a dec- war against 
laration of war, the President signed April 20th, and three 
days later he called out one hundred and twenty-five 
thousand volunteers. 

The American naval vessels in home waters were at 
once ordered to blockade the Cuban ports. The Asiatic 
squadron, commanded by Commodore George Dewey, 
was in the British port of Hong-Kong, and was notified 
to leave immediatelv, as the British Government had 
proclaimed neutrality. He was ordered to proceed to 
Manila and attack the Spanish fleet in that harbor. He 
had four cruisers and two gunboats, cari-ying in all 
one hundred and thirty-three guns. Early in the 
morning of May ist he sailed into Manila Bay, 
where he found the Spanish fleet, which consisted M}, 
of seven cruisers, two gunboats, and four torpedo 
boats, carrying in all one himdred and thirty- 
five guns, and was assisted b)' batteries on 
shore. The Spanish fleet was anchored across 
the entrance of a bay within the great bay, 
and the American fleet attacked it at once, steam- 
ing slowl}' five times round an ellipse, firing the 
starboard guns as they went up, and the port guns as 
they came back. The American gunners were won- 
derful marksmen, and nearly every shot told. The 
Spanish flagship was soon riddled, and had to be aban- 
doned. The Spaniards were bi"ave enough, but were 
no marksmen at all. Dewey drew off for a while, and 
then resumed the attack. In a little more than an hour 




366 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Battl( 
Bay. 



Capti 
nila. 



of Manila the entire Spanish fleet was either sunk or driven ashore 
and burned, and the Americans poured into the land bat- 
teries a fire that compelled them to surrender. The Span- 
ish fleet lost three hundred and eighty -one men killed or 
wounded. In the American fleet seven men were slightly 
wounded, but not a vessel was seriously injured. 

As soon as possible an expedition under the command 
of General Wesley Merritt sailed from San Francisco, 
carrying a large military force, which was landed near 
the southern shore of Manila Bay and besieged the city 
of Manila, still held by the Spaniards. On August 13th, 
re of Ma- after considerable fighting, the city was surrendered. A 
body of Filipino insurgents had assisted somewhat in the 
siege, but General Merritt was obliged to prevent them 
from entering the city, as they were only anxious to 
loot it and massacre the Spaniards. Various influences 
brought about a condition that resulted in a prolonged 
struggle against American authority by armed bands of 
natives mainly belonging to the Tagal tribe. 

Meanwhile Dewey's remarkable victory was followed 
two months later by another on the southern coast 
m& '^f Cuba. An American fleet, commanded by 
'(^ Commodore William T. Sampson, after search- 
ing for a Spanish fleet that had crossed the 
Atlantic from Spain, under Admiral Cervera, 
at last found it in the harbor of Santiago, 
"VVs and waited patiently for it to come out ; 
while an American military force had been 
landed on the coast east of that place and was 
approaching the city of Santiago. On July 3d 
Cervera's fleet, consisting of four war ships and two 
torpedo boats, came out of the harbor and steamed 




IVAR WITH SPAIN. 367 

westward alons: the coast, hopinsr to escape the Amer- Navai victory off 

° 101 the coast of Cuba. 

ican fleet and reach Havana. But the Americans were 
on the alert, and at once gave chase. A running fight 
ensued, and one after another the Spanish ships were 
riddled with shot, set on fire, and driven ashore, the 
last one fifty miles from Santiago. About six hundred 
Spaniards were killed or drowned, and twelve hundred 
were made prisoners. In the American fleet one man 
was killed and three were wounded. 

The American land forces, commanded by General 
William R. Shafter, were steadily approaching the city of 
Santiago on the east and northeast. On July ist were 
fought the battles of San Juan Hili and El Caney, in which 
the Americans, breaking through all kinds of obstructions, 
including entanglements of barbed wire, stormed the 
heights under a constant fire, carried the rifle pits at the 
top, and remained masters of the field. The Spaniards 
renewed the battle next day, but to no purpose. The 
American lines were gradually extended to the north and 
west, and siege guns were placed in position to command 
the city. On July 17th Santiago was surrendered, ^^'^j^^ 
and with it all the eastern end of the island and ' "^'*^- 
about twenty-two thousand soldiers. The island 
of Porto Rico also was occupied by American 
forces under the immediate command of Geneial 
Nelson A. Miles. 

In the last days of July peace negotia- , «*^ , 
tions were begun, and on August 12th the ' ^'-;^^^^^^=si^!>^^^, 
preliminary agreement was signed. The - " 

final treaty was signed in Paris by the Amer- 
ican and Spanish commissioners December loth. By 
this treaty Spain ceded to the United States the Phil- 



25 




?68 



HISTORY OF THE VXITED STATES. 



Terms of peace. 



K^ 



BRn lit 

NORTH 
BCRMi- 



ippine Islands, the island of 

Guam (one of the Ladrones), and 

the island of Porto Rico, and 

withdrew from Cuba, which was 

to be occupied and protected 

by United States forces ; and the 

United States was to 

pa)' Spain $20,000,- 

000 to reimburse her 

for money spent in 

the Philippines. 

In this war the 
losses of the Amer- 
ican arm}^ in battle 
were two hundred 
and ninet\- killed 
and sixty-five mor- 
tally wounded, while 
two thousand five 
hundred and sixty-five died from disease, a total of two 
thousand nine hundred and twenty out of two hundred 
and seventy-four thousand seven hundred and seventeen 




^Sl£,-!^ik-:-^Ji 



officers and men in the service. The navy lost one hun- 
dred and four men, including fifty-six that died of disease. 



LATER DEVELOPMEXTS OF THE COVXTRY. ^gg 




CHAPTER LXI. 



LATER DEVELOFMEXTS OF THE COUNTRY, 



We have seen how the United States, which was at Additions of ter- 

i'*ii tr*'*-!-* ritory before the 

hrst hniited by the Mississippi River on the west and civii war. 
by Florida on the south, received before the civil war 
of 1861-1865 five additions to its territor}-, making it 
about three times as large as it was before, as mav be 
seen by the maps on pages 241, C93, and 294: i. The 
old French province of Louisiana, a vast region west of 
the Mississippi, by purchase from France. 2. The so- 
called "Oregon Countrv," by exploration and discoverv. 
3. Florida, bv purchase from Spain. 4. Texas, bv tlie 
annexation of an independent republic, once a part of 



370 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Purchase of 
Alaska, 1867. 




West Virginia 
admitted, 1863; 



Nebraska, 1867 ; 
Colorado, 1876. 



Mexico. 5. The Mexican cessions by treaty after the 
war with Mexico. 

To these must be added Alaska, which was pur- 
chased from Russia in 1867 for a little more than sev- 
en million dol- 
lars ($7,200,000). 
This is the only 
territory we have 
that does not lie 
adjoining to the 
rest of the coun- 
try' . It is partly 
in the arctic re- 
gions, but the cli- 
mate of Alaska 
on the Pacific 
coast is not severe. The killing of seals for their furs 
is the chief business interest in Alaska. 

The number of States at the beginning of the civil 
war was thirt3'-four. By 1876, the hundredth year of 
the American Republic, the number had increased to 
thirty-eight. Two States had been admitted during the 
war. The people of the western part of Virginia were 
mostly on the side of the Union. This part of the State 
separated itself from eastern Virginia, which was acting 
with the Confederacy. It obtained admission to the 
Union in 1863, as a separate State, under the name of 
West Virginia. Nevada, just east of California, and a 
part of the territory ceded to us by Mexico, was ad- 
mitted in 1864. It is a land of silver-mining. 

In 1867 Nebraska was admitted. It is one of the 
most fertile of farming States. In the centennial year, 



Later developments of the coax try. 



2,7^ 



Colorado came into the Union. This State lies in the 
Rocky Mountain region, and has gold and silver mines. 
Cattle-raising is one of its chief industries. 

In i88g Congress passed an act admitting to the '^°''"' *""* ®°"'*' 

^ o f » Dakota, Montana 

Union four new States. Of these, North and South Da- and Washington, 

... . , ... '889. Idaho and 

kota lie in the great wheat region, Montana is a mining Wyoming, 1890. 
State, and Washington, on the Pacific coast, is fast de- ^ ' ' 
veloping many prosperous industries and a thriving 
commerce. In 1890 Idaho and Wyoming were admit- 
ted, and in 1896 Utah, raising the whole number to 
forty-five. 

Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Alaska are the Territories re- 
maining, 
only Territories now remaining in the continental por- 
tion of the United States. Utah was first settled by peo- 
ple professing Mormonism, a religion founded by Joseph 
Smith in western New York about 1830. This religion 
permits men to have more than one wife apiece, and 
Congress refused to admit Utah because some of its peo- 
ple were married polygamously, until this was forbidden 
by law, and a polygamist, sent from that State to Con- 
gress, was refused a seat. 

The settlement of the Western' States and Territories Later Indian w«r 

II 11 1 • 1 • n- -111- The Sioux mas- 

has brought the white people into connict with the fierce sacre in Minne- 

and warlike Indians of the plains. In the summer of ^°"' '^^'' 

1862 the eastern bands of the Sioux nation fell suddenly 

upon the defenseless settlements of Minnesota and killed 

nearly five hundred people. In the war which followed, 

the Sioux were driven out of the State, and thirty-eight 

of those captured were convicted of murdering women 

and children, and hanged. 

Though there were no horses in America when the custer attacks 

white men came, the Indians of the plains now have a the winter. 



37: 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




n- 



race of small ponies, descended from horses acquired 
long ago from the early Spanish conquerors of Mexico. 
The Indians of the plains are said to be " the best light 
j_ cavalry in the world." They were in the habit of 
committing their outrages on the settlements in 
the summer, when there was grass for the ponies. 
In the winter, when the ponies were almost starved, 
they took shelter in remote valleys, and counted them- 
selves safe from attack, on account of the difficulty the 
white men found in moving wagon-trains. But, in No- 
vember, 1868, General Sheridan sent General Custer, 
after the snow had fallen, to attack the hostile Indians 
in their villages. Custer, carrying his provisions on 
mules, followed the trail of a war party, under the chief 
Black Kettle, to their town on the Washita River, in 
the Indian Territory, and fell upon the sleeping savages 
at daybreak, defeating them with great slaughter. 
This battle terrified and subdued the Indians of the 
^"^ Southern plains, who no longer felt safe from pun- 
ishment in their winter retreats. 

But, in a later war with the Sioux 
of the Northern plains in 1876, 
Custer, having attacked a force 
outnumbering his own, was sur- 
rounded and killed, with all the 
men under his immediate com- 
mand. In this fight the Sioux 
were led by Sitting Bull. The 
Indians were afterward attacked 
by fresh troops and driven into 
Canadian territory. They have 
since been allowed to return. 




INDIAN OF THE 



NG FOR BUFFALOES. 



374 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



There have been other Indian wars, but, of course, 
the rash tribes are always worsted in the long run. The 
bisons, or buffaloes, which roamed as far eastward as 
Virginia in 1612, were also the main support of the 
Indians of Kentucky as well as of those farther west. 
But the hundreds of thousands of these creatures that 
grazed in the canebrakes of Kentucky and on the great 
open plains east of the Rocky Mountains have now been 
exterminated by the march of civilized man. The old 
life to which the savages were so much attached is fast 
breaking down. All the hunting-grounds will soon 
be occupied by farms, mines, and cities. There is noth- 
ing left for the Indians but to become civilized or to 
perish. Good men are now trying to protect them from 
wrong, and to persuade them to have their children 
taught to live the lives of civilized people, on farms, 
owned not by the tribes, but b}' individuals. Many In- 
dian children are taught at the expense of the govern- 
ment. Some of the tribes located in the Indian Territory 
have attained to considerable civilization. 




CHAPTER LXII. 

POPULATION, WEALTH, AND MODES OF LIVING. 

The first census was taken in 1790. There 

were then less than four million people (3,929,214), 

almost all living in the belt of country between the 

Atlantic coast and the Alleghany Mountains. This 

population has multiplied about sixteen times in a hun- 



POPULATION, WEALTH, MODES OF LIVING. 



375 



dred years. The census of 1900 showed more than sev- 
enty-six million people (76,438,238) in the United States, 
extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The population 



of popu- 




THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT OF THE CENTER OF POPULATION IN THE 



STATES SINCE 17flO. 



of this country is already much larger than that of any of 
the nations of Europe except Russia. It is, perhaps, safe 
to assume that before the close of the next century there 
will be two hundred million people in the United States. 

The increase of wealth has been yet more remark- 
able. This is due to the resources of the country, as 
well as to the enterprise of the people. Wheat from 
the rich farms of the great interior valley, and meat 
from the cattle-ranges of the Western States and Ter- 
ritories, are sent across the sea in vast quantities. Gold 
and silver from the Rocky Mountains and the Pa- 
cific coast, petroleum from the neighborhood of the 
Alleghany Mountains, and inexhaustible supplies of 
coal and iron in various regions, are great sources 
of wealth. Manufactures of many kinds also enrich 
the country. The United States is already the wealth- 
iest of the nations. 

In a new country men become inventive, because they 
have to find out how to do things that they have never 
seen anybody do before. Americans are, perhaps, the 



Increase of 
wealth. 



rly Amer 
'entions. 



376 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



most ingenious in mechanics of an}- people in the world. 
Before the Revolution, Thomas Godfrey, of Philadelphia, 
invented the quadrant, an instrument to help the navi- 
gator to find his whereabouts at sea. About the same 
time Franklin invented the lightning-rod. There was also 
a valuable machine invented in South Carolina for doing 
the hard labor of taking the hull off of the grains of rice. 
This was run by the ebbing and flowing of the tide. In 
the middle colonies flour-mills were improved, and little 
elevating machines invented, so that wheat did not have 
to be carried to the top of the mill on a man's back, 
whitneys cot- America has since become celebrated for what are 

ton-gin. 

called labor-saving machines. One of the most remark- 
able of these is the cotton-gin. It took so much time and 
toil to pick the seeds out of cotton that only small quan- 
tities were raised for home use. Long before the Revo- 
lution, some kind of a "gin" for cleansing the cotton of 
its seed had been invented, but it was neglected. When, 
however, machines for spinning cotton thread and weav- 
ing cotton cloth by steam-power were invented in Eng- 
land, there sprang up a great demand for raw cotton. In 
1794 Eli Whitney invented a "saw-gin" for taking the 
seeds out of cotton. This made cotton-raising profit- 
able, and caused the Southern States to grow rapidly 
in population and wealth. After the invention of the 
gin, indigo-culture was quite driven out by the more 
profitable cotton-raising. 
Some other re- The cottou-giu was almost the first of a great familv 

markable in- ,- , , . , . , 1 11 . 1 • 

ventions. ot labor-savuig machines, partly or whollv invented in 

this country. Reaping- and mowing-machines were first 
made successful by American inventors. Thrashing- 
machines were improved here. All the agricultural 



POPULATJOX, WEALTH, MODES OF LIVING. 



377 




machines now used have practically been introduced in 
the last fifty yeai's. The first really successful sewing- 
machine was introduced by Elias Howe in 1845. Morse's 
telegraph came into use at about the same time. The 
telephone is a recent American invention, of the greatest 
utility. The phonograph, which at first was regarded 
merely as a curiosity, now bids fair to be very useful. 
The t\'pe-writer is another invention that exerts a great 
influence on life. 

More inventions of great importance have been made change made by 

. . inventions. 

in the lifetime of people now living than in all the ages 
before. We live in a different world from that of our 
forefathers, who had only saddle-horses or wagons for 
land-conveyance, and slow-sailing ships or row-boats 
for water-journeys. We can go around the world 
in a great deal less time than some of the first 
emigrants took to sail from England to America. 
Our ancestors had neither kerosene-oil, gas, nor elec- 
tric light. Stoves were practically unknown ; for warm- 
ing themselves and 
cooking their food, 
people in old times 
had only wood-fires 
in wide, open fire- 
places, which often 
chilled the room 
with draughts of 
air or filled it with 
smoke. They card- 

"" " " ' ed, spun, wove, and 

dyed, by hand, wool or flax for their own clothing. Now 
steam is made to do most of the work in spinning and 




Z7^ 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



weaving, in making hats and shoes, in planing boards, 
and in turning wood. Even delicate little things like 
watches are made mostly by steam machinery. 
The factory sys- Qut of the USB of machinery has grown up the factory 
system, which gathers working-people into towns and 
sets them to labor together in factories. Many people 
are able in this way to contribute to the making of an 
article, each doing his own part. This saves time, and 
makes each man's toil more productive. The building 
and running of these factories require a great deal of 
money ; so that manufacturing is now carried on by two 
classes: First, the capitalists, who furnish the factory and 
its machines ; second, the men and women who receive 
wages and do the labor. This has led to great discus- 
sions of the rights of the working-people, and their rela- 
tions to those who furnish the money, or capital. 



CHAPTER LXIII. 

SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Scientific pur- SCIENCE could not flourish in a country where all 

suits not possible 

at first. things were new and rude, and where the work neces- 

sary to sustain life occupied men's entire time. Many 
of the first comers to America were well informed in the 
knowledge of their day, and some of them even pos- 
sessed large libraries ; but their children had all they 
could do to maintain themselves and get the simplest 
rudiments of education. It is only where there is some 
leisure that people have time to observe nature and to 



SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 



379 



acquire other knowledge than that which is useful in the 
ordinary affairs of life. But the study of science was 
much retarded in the seventeenth century^that is, at 
the time when America was settled — by the violent re- 
ligious controversies and sectarian hatreds with which 
the world was then vexed. The minds of learned men 
were largely engrossed with abstruse speculations, and 
with efforts to prove that their opponents were wrong 
on questions of theology. 

Medicine is the science most immediately useful and The study 

practice of 

necessary in daily life, and it might be expected to cine, 
flourish sooner than any other. But at the time of the 
settlement of America it was, like other branches of 
knowledge, darkened by ignorance and superstition. 
The greater part of medical practice, in the first century 
and a half after the settlement of the colonies was begun, 
was in the hands of ministers, who had read some books 
of physic and learned how to compound a few of the 
mysterious mixtures of the time, and of women who had 
picked up a knowledge of remedies of one sort or an- 
other. The use of simple medicines and some other 
branches of the art of healing as then understood had 
been taught to women in the convents during the middle 
ages, and had remained a branch of female education in 
many families in England down to the time of the set- 
tlement of America. In the colonies medical herbs were 
grown in household gardens, and some women-doctors 
came to considerable local reputation. There were also 
men known as bone-setters, who reduced fractures and 
treated other injuries successfully, though they were 
without any surgical knowledge except that acquired 
by experience. Blood-letting and tooth -drawing fell 



and 
medi 




38o 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



mostly to the barbers, who were also surgeons in a 
small way. 
Remedies used xhe mediclnes in use soon after the settlement of the 

in the colonies. 

colonies show the low state of knowledge. Learned men 
prescribed for small-pox the powder made by pulveriz- 
ing a toad after it had been burned to a cinder. Pills 
of cotton were used for the same disease and others, 
and silk-worms dried and powdered were applied to the 
head for the cure of various complaints. Grasshoppers 
used in the same way cured colic, and ants' eggs were 
considered good for deafness. Earwigs boiled in oil 
were recommended for the hearing, and the brains of 
the screech-owl were believed exxellent for headache. 
The rattlesnake was thought to be particularly medici- 
nal. Its skin was powdered and taken internally. The 
cast-off skin was also thought to be beneficial when tied 
about the body. The oil of the rattlesnake was an ac- 
cepted cure for gout, its heart was used medicinall}', and 
its gall was given in balls made by mixing it with chalk. 
Tree-toads were worn about the neck in little bags for 
some diseases, and the feet of turkey-buzzards in oil were 
used to cure rheumatism. 
Better phyai- In later timcs, as wealth and intelligence increased, 

cians. ^ ^ _ ^ 

the number of educated physicians in the towns was 
greatly augmented. The most of these had attended Eu- 
ropean medical schools, particularly that at Edinburgh. 
Some of them made valuable contributions to medical 
science. But even the greatest of these doctors were 
also pharmacists, keeping " shops " in which they mixed 
and sold their medicines. 
Colonial quacks. In a ucw country, where education is necessarily 
somewhat neglected, quacks find a paradise, and in the 



SCIEXCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 



381 




colonies ignorant pretenders to medical knowledge 
swarmed, as a writer of the time says, " like locusts in 
Egypt." In New York there was one doctor to 
every fifty families, and the most of these were illit- 
erate charlatans. An intelligent writer maintained 
that more lives were lost in New York by pretend- 
ed physicians than by all other causes whatever. 
Quacks traveled from colony to colony, frequent- 
ing fairs and other places of concourse, where they 
sold their plasters, pills, powders, and elixirs, b}' 
proclaiming their virtues from platforms. A man 
who chanced to be the seventh son in a famil)- was 
a free-ordained healer of scrofula and various other 
complaints. All the quackeries known in England were 
transplanted to this country, and a new and particularly , q^^ck doctor 
American sort originated here. The so-called " Indian 
doctor," pretending to secrets acquired from the hugger- 
mugger of the medicine-men, flourished as early as 1712. 

The study of botany in early times was much pro- Early botaniete. 
moted b)' the desire to acquire new remedies for disease. 
In America many of the diseases were new, and remedies 
for them were sought among the plants of the country. 
It could not be, indeed, that intelligent men should live 
in a new continent, full of plants and animals hitherto un- 
known, without having their attention attracted to the 
study of these. There arose several eminent botanists 
among the colonists in this country. Such were Banis- 
ter and Mitchell in Virginia, and such was John Bar- 
tram, of Pennsylvania, who is said to have had "a pro- 
pensity to botanies" from his childhood. 

The other sciences most studied in the colonies were Mathematicians 
perhaps mathematics and astronomy, to which the writ- {„ the colonies. 



382 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




RITTENH0U8E. 



Influence of pub- 
lic libraries. 



ings of Newton had given a great impulse about the 
beginning of the eighteenth century. Several Americans 
constructed orreries to show the motions of the planets. 
Philadelphia was unquestionably the center of scientific 
pursuits in America during the last century. Here 
lived the glazier Thomas Godfrey, who neglected his 
trade and gave his da3'S and nights to the study of 
mathematics and the invention of the quadrant, to 
which we have referred. Here lived David Ritten- 
house, who when a boy had covered the handle 
of his plow and the fence-rails about the field in 
which he worked with mathematical calculations, 
and who became famous as an astronomer. There 
were many other students of astronomy and chemistry 
in Philadelphia, but the center of this group was Ben- 
jamin Franklin, who was interested in every kind of in- 
tellectual pursuit and every public improvement. 

To Franklin was due the founding of public subscrip- 
tion libraries in the colonies. Books in that day were 
scarce and high in price, and magazines of the kind now 
made were unknown. In 1731 Franklin founded the 
Philadelphia Library. This was imitated in other towns 
in the colonies, and reading-rooms became fashionable. 
People were ashamed to be without knowledge ; and, 
having few public amusements, they read a good deal, 
so that the " common tradesmen and farmers " in Ameri- 
can towns were said to have been better informed than 
people of the same class in Europe. Franklin in his old 
age attributes in some degree to this mental awakening 
produced by public libraries, " the stand made through- 
out the colonies in defense of their privileges " during 
the Revolution. 



SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 



383 



It is always interesting to trace a stream to its source, Almanac uwrs 
and to see the great river where it is born in a little rill. 
The beginning of general literature in this country can 
perhaps be traced to the almanacs. These little publica- 
tions, which came out once a year, managed to compass a 
good deal within their small space. They had medical 
advice along with directions for farming, and many witty 
general remarks. Some of the best things written at the 
time were printed in the old almanacs, of which there 
were many. One of the best of these was that issued by 
Nathaniel Ames in Boston. But the most famous and 
widely known of any was the one that Franklin edited, 
for twenty-five years, under the title of " Poor Richard's 
Almanac." It attained at one time a circulation of ten 
thousand copies, which was extremely large in a country 
so thinly peopled. 

Franklin is perhaps the real startinor.point of Ameri- writings of 

^ ^ . . . Franklin. 

can literature. As he was the first American scientific 
discoverer of renown, the first American diplomatist, the 
founder of the first public library and the first perma- 
nent philosophical societ}- in this country, so he was the 
first writer in the field of general literature. His writ- 
ings are full of acute thought on practical themes, and 
suited to the genius of a busy people engrossed with 
their outward affairs. 

But the good beginning made by Franklin and others Jefferson, Hami! 

. • 1 1 1 r ton, and Madison 

toward an American literature received a check from the 
excitements which preceded the Revolution and the dis- 
cussions which followed the establishment of a new na- 
tion. As in the seventeenth century the best minds in 
America were engrossed by religious debates, in the last 
half of the eighteenth they were chiefly occupied with 



26 



384 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




WASHINGTON IRVING. 



questions of state. Besides the practical writ- 
ings of Franklin and the theological specula- 
tions of the great New England divine, Jona- 
than Edwards, almost the only works of per- 
manent value produced during the first two 
centuries after settlements in the present 
United States began are the writings oi 
Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, on 
political subjects. 

Washington Irving, who is sometimes 
called the father of American literature, 
was born in New York in 1783. His first im- 
portant work was a burlesque, called " Knick- 
erbocker's History of New York," in which he 
makes much sport of the quaint customs of the Dutch 
founders of the colony of New Netherland. The book 
is full of drollery, and won praise for its author on 



both sides of the Atlantic, 
mous work is the " Sketch- 
Book," in which appear the 
charming tales of " Rip 
Van Winkle " and " The 
Legend oi Sleepy Hollow." 
His " Life of Washington" 
is still a standard biog- 
raphy, and his other works 
are among the most pleasing 
of American productions 
by reason of their graceful 
style and playful humor. 

William Cullen Bryant, 
born in western Massachu- 



But Irvine's most fa- 




/ILLIAM CULLEN BRVAN 



SC/EiVCE, LITERATURE, AXD ART. 



385 




LONGFELLOW. 



setts in 1794, was the first American who became wide- 
ly known as a poet. Though he lived to be very old, 
his most famous poem, " Thanatopsis," was written when 
he was not yet nineteen years of age, and his 
almost equally famous " Lines to a Water- >*^ 
fowl " before he was twenty. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the most 
popular and the most widely celebrated of 
our poets, was born in Portland, ^L'une, in 
1807. Of his shorter pieces, "Excelsior" 
and •' The Psalm of Life " are best known. 
His "Hiawatha" is an epic poem of In- 
dian life, and his "Evangeline" is a nar- 
rative poem founded on the story of the 
expulsion of the Acadians. 

John Greenleaf Whittier, sometimes called 
" the Quaker poet," was born in Massachusetts, in the whutic 
same year with Longfellow (1807). Many of his poems 
describe simple, rural life. Others relate to slavery and 
the civil war. One of the most charming is " Snow- 
Bound," a description of winter scenes in New Eng- 
land, written in 1866. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in 1809. 
He is famous for his witty poems, of which 
" The Last Leaf " and " The One-Hoss 
Shay " are two of the best known. His ^r" 
prose work, " The Autocrat of the Break- <;^ 
fast-Table," is thought to be one of the 
very brightest books in our literature. He 
has also written several successful novels. 
Holmes probably excels every other Ameri- 




can writer lor wit. 



OLIVER WENDELL I 



?86 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 






Edgar Allan Poe, born in 1809, wrote some 
poems that have achieved a world-wide fame. 
Of these, " The Raven " is the best known. His 
weird and marvelous short stories have also a 
permanent place in literature. Poe's writings ap- 
peal powerfully to the imagination. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803, in 
Boston. Some of his poems are greatly admired 
by literary readers ; they can hardly be called pop- 
ular. He is more widely known by his essays as a 
profound thinker and a writer of genius, poetic in- 
spiration, and rare moral aspirations. His essays on 
"The Conduct of Life" are filled with wholesome sug- 
gestions. 

James Russell Lowell was born in 18 19. He is best 
known to general readers by his poems in the New 
England dialect, called the " Biglow Papers." Low- 
ell IS also famous for his very thoughtful and 
^\ltty essa3's, criticisms, and addresses. 

Walt Whitman, born 1819, was the most ec- 
centric of our poets, and one that can be classed 
J^S' ^^it'i no other. 

Of the writers we have mentioned Holmes 
was the last one living. In the words of one 
of his early poems, he survived 

"... to be 
The last leaf upon the tree 
In the spring." 



LOO EMERSON. 



e- With Holmes passed away the great New England 
group of authors, the most interesting that our litera- 
ture has produced. Already the period of the as- 



SC/EA'CE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 



387 




giMORE COOPER 



cendency of poetry in American 
literature has passed, and we have 
entered on an age in which prose 
is the predominant form. 

Two American writers of fiction 
in the period before the civil war 
attained a world-wide fame. James 
Fenimore Cooper was born in New 
Jersey in 1783. His novels are full 
of action and adventure. The most 
famous are those known as " The 
Leather- Stocking Tales." A ver}' 
different writer is Nathaniel Haw- 
thorne, who was a rare genius, and 
whose stories have a weird and 
subtile interest. Of these, "The Scarlet Letter" and cooper 

Hawthc 

" The House of the Seven Gables " are general favorites. 

William Gilmore Simms, born in South Carolina in simms. 
1806, though never attaining the literary finish and 
quality of his greater contemporaries, Cooper and Haw- 
thorne, is yet a conspicuous figure in our literature by 
reason of the familiar handling of old Southern life in 
his novels. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe, born in Connecticut in 1S12, Mrs. st 
was i-endered famous by " Uncle Tom's Cabin," of 
which as a political force we have spoken else- 
where. But some of her stories of New England 
life were enough to have given her high distinction. 

William Hickling Prescott, born in 1796, 
was at once a patient scholar and a most brill- 
iant writer. His " History of the Reign of Fer- 
dinand and Isabella " and his histories of the 




NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




HARRIET BEtCHtR STOWE. 



Scientific 
gators. 




conquests of Mexico and Pern are as fascinating 
as brilliant romances, though they are the result 
of the most patient research, conducted by one 
almost blind. George Bancroft, born in 1800, is 
less elegant in style, but famous for the great 
knowledge of his subject shown in his " History 
of the United States." John Lothrop Motley, 
born in 18 14, wrote several works on Dutch his- 
tory that have achieved a wide reputation. Fran- 
cis Parkman has taken for his field 
the French settlements, voyages, and 
discoveries in North America, and 
his several histories relating to parts 
of this great theme are highly es- 
teemed. 

A number of Americans eminent 
in science have done honor to this 
country by their discoveries and writ- 

. ., I 1 t \ 1 1 WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT. 

mgs. Among these John J. .Audubon, 
the adventurous naturalist, and Asa Gray, the eminent 
systematic botanist, though men of very different mold, 
are alike in their wide and permanent fame. Some of 
our greatest men of science are still in active service, 
and any attempt to distinguish tiicm from others 
would be out of place here. 

Of the old school of writers, the greater number 

belonged to a group about Boston, which in the 

period before and during the war had attained a 

iiterar}' activity in advance of that of the rest of 

the country. The writers of the present period 

are much more widely distributed ; the intellectual 

life of our time is much more pervasive. Every 




SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 



389 




great natural division of the country' is represented in Late 
the present group of writers. The older authors were 
chiefly poets and essayists ; those of to-day give them- 
selves more to works of fiction and humor. The 
later men of letters now in active service are zeal- 
ous students of our own life. The manners and 
character of Americans in town and country are 
described with fullness in recent works of 
fiction, and the dialect variations and folk- 
speech of almost every part of the United 
States have been studied and reproduced 
for purposes of literary art. Many of the older 
historians preferred foreign themes ; the historical 
writers and students of to-day in this country de- 
vote themselves chiefly to exploring the history of the 
United States. These changes probably mark a growth 
of intellectual independence. 

In the colonial time there was little or nothing that Eariy An 
could be called American art. Several portrait-painters 
of ability practiced their calling in America. In 
the last centur}' three artists of American birth 
achieved fame in England — Benjamin West, John 
Singleton Copley, and Gilbert Stuart. 

West was born in Pennsylvania in 1738. 
Though he had never seen a picture of any 
sort, he made a drawing, at seven years of age, 
in red and black ink, of a sleeping infant whose 
cradle he had been set to watch. His mother 
was delighted with this mark of talent, and her 
praise encouraged West to continue to draw. 
He covered his copy-book with drawings of birds, Benjamin west, 
flowers, and quadrupeds before he had learned to write. 




BENJAMIN WESA, 



390 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




JOHN S. COPLEY. 



When missed from the plow one da}-, he was found 

under a bush, where he had sketched from memory 

portraits of every member of the family. In order to 

get colors, he learned from the Indians how to prepare 

the red and yellow pigments with which they painted 

their faces ; to these he added blue by getting indigo 

from his mother. He made a brush of hairs from 

the tail of the house-cat. As there was small chance 

for an artist in America, he settled in England, 

where he became the favorite painter of the king, 

and the President of the Royal Academy. 

Copley was born in Boston in 1737. He early 
showed talent, and practiced the onl}- art for which 
the colonists had any taste, that of portrait-painting. 
He sent a portrait to West in England, and its merit 
John Singleton gave him a position as an artist. In 1774 he went 

Copley. 

to London, where the rest of his life was spent, and 
where he achieved fame as a painter of portraits and 
historical pieces. 

Stuart, who was probablv the ablest of the three, 
was a native of Rhode Island. He went to England in 
1775, and was a pupil of Benjamin West. In 1792 
he returned to the United States, with a particu- 
lar desire to paint a portrait of Washington. He 
succeeded in making several of these, from one of 
which the portrait of Washington given in this 
work is engraved. Stuart may almost be con- 
sidered the father of American art. 
The conditions of our life were formerlv un- 
favorable to the production of a school of paint- 
ers and sculptors, but there has been a large advance 
in late years. 



Gilbert Stuart. 




GILBERT 6TUART. 



INDEX, 



Abercromby, Gen. James, 136; defeat of, 141. 

Abraham, Heights of, 137. 

Acadians. expulsion of the, 132. 

Accessions of territory, 359. 

Adams, John, influence of, in Continental 
Congress, 173; death of, 174, 222. 

Adams, John Quincy, slietch of, 271. 

Adams. Samuel, sketch of, 163, 214. 

Alabama, admission of, to the Union, 266. 

Alabama, the, 347. 

Alabama claims, 347. 

Alamo, battle of the, 285. 

Alaska, 370. 

Algiers, war with, 230. 

.Mien law, 225. 

.Allen, Ethan, expedition of, 167, 

Almanacs, 3S3. 

America, discovery of, by Columbus, i 
mistakes in regard to, 3 ; first seen, 5 
second, third, and fourth voyages to, 6 
visits to, previous to Columbus, 7 ; visits 
to, of Americus \>spucius, 8 ; name of, 
9 ; discovery of, by John Cabot, 10 ; visit- 
ed by John and Sebastian Cabot, 11 ; by 
Vasco da Gama, 1 1 ; still thought to be 
part of Asia, 1 1 ; suspected of not being, 
12; way through or around sought, 12; 
not known to be a continent, 13 ; colonies 
sent to, 15 ; free government begun in, 
Xi ; French and Spaniards in, 113-118. 

.American party, the, 301. 

American seamen, courage of, 253, 

.■\merican troops, character of, in the .Mexi- 
can War, 2S7. 

Ames, Nathaniel, 375. 

.Amherst, Jeffrey, 135. 

.Amidas, Captain, leads an expedition to 
America, 15. 

Anderson, Major Robert, 30S. 

.\ndre. Major, connection of, with Arnold, 
187 ; death of, 187. 



Andros, Sir Edmund, Governor, 150 ; im- 
prisoning of, 167. 

Annaivon, capture of, 83. 

.Antietara, battle of, 322. 

Anti-FederaUsts, 214. 

Anti-Nebraska party, 302. 

Appomattox, 345. 

Argall, Pocahontas stolen by, 30 ; character 
of, as governor, 33. 

.Arkansas, admitted to the Union, 294 ; se- 
cession of, 315. 

•Arnold, Benedict, character of, 1S6 ; at 
battle of Bemis Heights, 179; treason of, 
187 ; escape of, 1S7. 

Art, American, 379, ef seq. 

Arthur, Chester A., succeeds to the presi- 
dency, 357. 

Asia, spices of, i ; stories of rich cities in, 
I ; attempts to reach, around Africa, 2 ; 
shorter route proposed by Columbus. 2, 3. 

.\ssembly, clerk of Virginia, punished for 
betraying secrets, 153. 

.Astronomers, colonial, 3S1. 

Atlanta, capture of, 334. 

Audubon, John J., 388. 

Averysboro, battle of, 344. 

Bacon, Nathaniel, rebellion of, 84 ; char- 
acter of, 154, 156; war of, with Indians, 
15s ; proclaimed a rebel, 135 ; siege of 
Jamestown by, 155 ; death of, 156. 

Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean, 12. 

Ballot reform, 361. 

Baltimore, Lord George Calvert, failure of 
his colonies in Newfoundland and Vir- 
ginia, 53 ; receives grant of Maryland, 
53 ; death of, 53 ; his son plants a colony 
in Maryland, 53-55. 

Baltimore, Md., attack on, 260; United 
States troops attacked in, 313. 

Baltimore clippers, 254, 278. 



392 



Bancroft, George, 3S8. 

Banister, John, 371. 

Barbary pirates, war with, 229. 

Bargee, 23S. 

Barlowe, Capt., in Ralegh's expedition, 15. 

Barren Hill, 182. 

Bartram, John, 371. 

Battle above the clouds, the, 332. 

Bear-Flag Republic, the, 289. 

Beauregard, General P. G. T., 313. 

Bell, John, nominated for President, 305. 

Bellomont, Governor, character of, 151. 

Bennington, battle of, 179. 

Bentonville, battle of, 344. 

Berkeley, Sir William, 150 ; connection 
with Bacon's rebellion, 153, 154 ; flight 
of, 155 ; return of, 156 ; death of, 156. 

Biddle, Captain Nicholas, 191. 

Bigelow, John, 348. 

Black Snake, the, 219. 

Bladensburg, battle of, 260. 

Blaine, James G., 357. 

Blockade, 347. 

Block-houses, 89 ; illustration, 192. 

Bloody Run, fight at, with Indians, 8. 

Blue Jacket, 218. 

Boats and boatmen. Western, 23S. 

Bonaparte, schemes of, 239. 

Bond-servants and slaves, 104. 

Bonhomme Richard, the, encounter with 
the Serapis, 191. 

Boone, Daniel, 233, 234. 

Booth, John Wilkes, 350. 

Border States, condition of, 312. 

Boston Massacre, 163. 

Boston Port Bill, 165. 

Boston Tea-party, 164. 

Botanists, early, 381. 

Boundaries, attempts of English to fix, 232. 

Bouquet, General Henry, defeats Indians at 
Bushy Run, 147. 

Bowling Green, 175. 

Braddock, General Edward, 130, 131. 

Bragg, General Braxton, 327 ; at Chatta- 
nooga, 332 ; at Lookout Mountain, 332. 

Brandywine, battle of the, iSo. 

Breckinridge, John C, nominated for Presi- 
dent, 305 ; in military service, 339. 

Brewster, Elder, anecdote of, 41. 

British officers, relations of, with colonial 
soldiers, 140. 



Brock, General Isaac, decorates Tecumseh, 
24S. 

Brown, General Jacob, 259. 

Brown, John, raid of, 305. 

Bruinsburg, crossing at, of Grant, 328. 

Bryan, William J., nominated, 361. 

Bryant, William C, 384. 

tuchanan, James, elected President, 303 ; 
sketch of, 304 ; signs Ostend Manifesto, 
304 ; attitude toward secession, 30S. 

Buell, General D. C, 317. 

Buena Vista, battle of, 287. 

Buffaloes exterminated, 366. 

BjU Run, first battle, 313 ; second, 321. 

Bunker Hill, battle of, 168. 

Eurgoyne, General John, expedition of, 178; 
defeated at Bennington, 179 ; surrender 
of, 180. 

Burnet, Governor, character of, 151. 

Bumside, General A. E., placed in com- 
mand, 322. 

Burr, Aaron, 217; downfall of, 241 ; duel 
with Hamilton, 241 ; schemes of, 242. 

Bushy Run, battle of, 147. 

Cabinet, first, leaders of opposite parties 
in, 217. 

Cabot, John, birth of, 9; his journey to 
Mecca, g, lo ; first voyage to America, 
10; called the Great Admiral, 11. 

Cabot, Sebastian, voyage with his father, 
John, II. 

Calhoun, John C, traits and doctrines of, 
276, 307- 

California, conquest of, 2S8 ; visited by 
Spaniards, 289 ; by Sir Francis Drake, 
289 ; Bear-Flag Government in, 289 ; an- 
nexed to United States, 289; admit- 
ted to the Union, 295 ; admission of, 
opposed, 29S ; gold-mines found in, 
257. 

California, Lower, 2S9. 

Calvert, Leonard, lirst Governor of Mary- 
land, 53. 

Camden, S. C, battle of, 184. 

Canada, French in, 116. 

Canadians, fighting of, with Indians, 221. 

Canals, 278. 

Cape Cod, named by Gosnold, 20. 

Cape Horn, voyage around, to California, 
297. 



393 



Capital of United States, removal of, 224. 

Captives, selling of, into Canada by Indians, 
144, 145 ; rescue of, 146. 

Captivity, results of, 146. 

Carolinas, proposed constitution of, 56 ; 
slow growths in, 57 ; change of govern- 
ment, 57. 

Cartier, Jacques, voyages of, 115. 

Casco Bay, fort, attack on, 122. 

Cass, General Lewis, nominated for Presi- 
dent, 296. 

Cedar Creek, battle of, 340. 

Central America, attempt against, by fili- 
busters, 300. 

Cerro Gordo, battle of, 290. 

Chambersburg burned, 339. 

Champlain, Samuel de, 116. 

Chancellorsville, battle of, 322. 

Chapultepec, storming of, 291. 

Charles II, King, land grants to favorites, 
55, 157. 

Charleston, removal to, of Port Royal set- 
tlement, 56 ; rebellion in, in 1719, 57 ; tea 
destroyed in, 164 ; siege of, by the British, 
184; fall of, 184. 

Charter Oak, the, 157. 

Charter of Connecticut, hiding of, 157. 

Charter of Virginia, the great, 33, 34 ; 
stolen by Kemp, 36 ; lost, 36. 

Chattanooga, battles at, 332 ; siege of, 
327- 

Chesapeake, the, 253. 

Chickahominy River, 320. 

Chickamauga, battle of, 331, 

Chile, pays indemnity, 360. 

Church, Captain Benjamin, 82-S4. 

Churubusco, battle of, 290. 

Civil-sen-' ice reform, 35S. 

Clark, Captain, explorations of, 294, 

Clark, General George Rogers, exploits of, 
in the West, 193. 

Clay, Henry, connection with Missouri Com- 
promise, 268 ; sketch of, 275 ; doctrines 
of, 276; nominated for President, 283; 
advocates the Compromise of 1850, 298. 

Clermont, the, 278. 

Cleveland, Grover, elected President, 35S. 

CUnton, George, 244, 

Clinton, Governor De Witt, builds Erie Ca- 
nal, 279, 

Clinton, Sir Henry, retreat of, 183. 



Cold Harbor, battle of, 337. 

Colleges in the young republic, 207-209. 

Colonial life : houses, 91 ; furniture, 92 ; 
food and drink, 93 ; dress and modes of 
travel, 94 ; schools, 95 ; amusements, 96 ; 
modes of taking game, 97. 

Colonial methods of fighting, 139, 140. 

Colonies, English, proposed in America, 
14 ; motives for planting of, 20 ; sending 
of, by Ralegh, 15-19 ; attempt to plant, 
by Gosnold, 20, 21 ; planting of, by Pil- 
grims, 37 ; planting of, by Puritans, 42- 
47 ; planting of, by Dutch, 47-52 ; by Lord 
Baltimore, 53-55 ; in the Carolinas, 55- 
57 ; planting of, by Quakers, 59-62 ; 
planting of, by Oglethorpe, 64-66 ; sent 
by the Palatinate, 67 ; existing ones set- 
tled in, by Irish, French, Germans, and 
Scotch, 68 ; government of, 47 ; union 
of, against French and Indians, 122 ; joy 
in, over fall of Canada, 139 ; signals used 
in, 90 ; government of, 148 ; governors 
of, 150, 151 ; aristocratic feeling in, 213; 
democratic feeling in, 213. 

Colored men in War of 1812, 262. 

Columbia College, 216. 

Columbia River, discovery of, 294. 

Columbia, S. C, 344. 

Columbus, Christopher, sketch of, 2 ; pro- 
poses new route to Asia, is deceived by 
King of Portugal, 3 ; courage of. 4 ; of- 
fers to Ferdinand and Isabella. 4 ; sails 
from Spain, 5 ; other voyages of, 6 ; 
death of, 7. 

Commerce, growth of, 229. 

Company, Virginia, 21-36. 

Compromise period, the, 275. 

Compromise of 1S50, the, 298. 

Confederate money, 349. 

Confederate navy, the, 347. 

Confederates, seizure of forts and navy- 
yards by, 313. 

Confederate States of America, the, 309. 

Confederation formed, 195. 

Congress, the first, 165 ; petition of, 166 ; 
Continental, 16S. 

Congress, the frigate, 324. 

Congress, weakness of, at first, ig^. 

Constitution, the, of the United States, ef- 
fect upon, of the Great Charter of Vir- 
ginia, 34. 



394 



Constitution, the, framed, 196 ; fears about, 
197 ; adopted, 197 ; explanation of, 197, 
198. 

Constitution, change in the, 22S. 

Constitution, the frigate, escapes from a 
British squadron, 251 ; captures the Guer- 
riere, 252; nicknamed "Old Ironsides," 
253 ; captures the Java, 252. 

Constitutional Convention, ig6. 

Constitutional Union party, 305. 

Continental array, 171. 

Contreras, battle of, 290. 

Convict-servants, 106. 

Cooper, Jaraes F., 387. 

Copley, John S., 389. 

Copyright, international, 361. 

Corinth, movement toward, 317 ; siege of, 
318, 327. 

Combury, Lord, 150. 

Comwallis, Lord, 177, 178; surrender of, 
189. 

Cotton-gin, the, 376. 

Cotton States, the, 306. 

Council of estate, the, 33. 

Cowpens, battle of the, iSo. 

Craven, Governor, 85. 

Creek Indians, war with, 261. 

" Crimps," 105. 

Croghan, Major George, defense of Fort 
Stephenson by, 256. 

Crook, General George, 339. 

Crown Point, capture of, 133. 

Cuba, attempts to purchase, 300 ; secret ex- 
peditions to, 300 ; war in, 364 et seq. 

Cumberland, the, 324. 

Custer, General George A., at the battle of 
the Washita, 364 ; defeated by the Sioux, 
372- 

Custom-houses, colonial, established by 
English law, 152. 

Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, 236. 

Cultyhunk, Island of, settlement in the, 



Davis, Jefferson, election of, to the presi- 
dency of Southern Confederacy, 309; 
sketch of, 309; released, 351. 

Dearborn, General Henry, 250. 

Decatur, Stephen, 230 ; commands frigate 
United States, 252, 

Declaration of Independence, the, 171, 172, 
174. 

De Kalb, Baron, 181. 

Delaware, crossings of the, 177. 

De la Warr, Lord, sent with supplies to 
Jamestown, 28 ; search of, for gold, 29 ; 
sickness of, 29 ; departure of, 29 ; return 
of, 33 ; death of, 33. 

Democratic party, rise of, 273, 274 ; divis- 
ions of, 296, 305. 

Democratic Republican party, 215. 

De Soto, Hernando, expedition of, 114. 

Detroit, surrender of, 247. 

Dewey, George, 365. 

Dinwiddle, Governor, 170. 

Directory, the French, 223. 

Discovery, the, 21-25, 

District of Columbia, the, 225 ; slaves in, 298. 

Domestic animals in the colonies, loi. 

Dongan, Governor, character of, 151. 

" Don't give up the ship ! " 253. 

Douglas, Stephen A., connection of, with 
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 301 ; nomination 
for President, 305. 

Drake, Sir Francis, carries home remnant 
of first colony, 18 ; visits California, 289. 

Dred Scott decision, the, 304 ; effect of, in 
the North, 305. 

Dress in Washington's time, 212. 

Dustin, Hannah, escape of, 91. 

Dutch, explorations of the, 49 ; claims of the, 
49; trading-post of the, at Albany, 49; 
settlements of the, in 1623, 50 ; settle New 
Amsterdam, 50 ; driven from Connecticut 
River, 50 ; capture posts on the Delaware, 
so- 



Dakota, North and South, 363. 

Dale, Sir Thomas, made Governor of Vir- 
ginia, 29 ; return to England of, 30. 

Dare, \'irginia, first white child bom in 
America, 19. 

Davenport, John, first settlement in New 
Haven by, 45. 



Early, General Jubal A., 339. 
Eden, Governor, 150. 
Education in the new republic, 206. 
Ejection, presidential, disputed, 355. 
Electors, presidential, 229. 
Eliot, John, 82. 

Elizabeth, Queen, grants Ralegh's charter, 
15 ; Virginia named in honor of, 16. 



395 



Emancipation Proclamation, 326. 

Embargo of 1S07, 24J. 

Emerson, Ralph \V., 3S6. 

England, troubles with, 221, 360. 

English, the, claims of, 51 ; conquest over 

the Dutch, 51 ; capture and rename New 

Amsterdam, 51-58. 
Era of good feeling, the, 269. 
Ericsson, John, 324. 
Erie Canal, effect of, 279. 
Essex, the, in the Pacific, 254. 

Fairfax, Lord, 170. 

Fair Oaks, battle of, 320. 

Fairs, colonial, 9S. 

Farmers, life among the early, 210. 

Farragut, Admiral David G., 326. 

Federal city, 224. 

Federalists, 214, 215, 225, 227, 244 ; opinions 
of, 306. 

Ferdinand, King, Columbus's negotiations 
with, 4. 

Filibusters, 300. 

Fillmore, Millard, succeeds to the presi- 
dency, 297 ; nominated for President by 
the American party, 303. 

Finances of the United States government 
during the civil war, 34S. 

Fireplace, Franklin's, 377. 

Fisher's Hill, battle at, 340. 

Fishing and whaling in the colonies, 102. 

Five Forks, battle of, 345. 

Flag, the American, 261. 

Flax-spinning, introduced by Irish Protest- 
ants, 6S. 

Fletcher, Governor, 150. 

Florida, 114; purchased by the United 
States, 269. 

Foote, Commodore A. H., at Forts Henrj' 
and Donelson, 316. 

Forbes, General, 135. 

Fort Dearborn, 247. 

Fort Detroit, in Pontiac's conspiracy, 147. 

Fort Duquesne, fall of, 135. 

Fort Edward captured, 179. 

Fort Frontenac captured, 135. 

Fort Harrison, 248. 

Fort McHenry, 261. 

Fort Mackinaw, 247. 

Fort Monroe, 319. 

Fort Moultrie, 308. 



Fort Pitt, 147. 

Fort Stanwix. relief of, 1 79. 

Fort Stephenson, 256. 

Fort Sullivan, defense of, 184. 

Fort Sumter, effect of the firing on, 310. 

Fort Ticonderoga, defeat of the English at, 

136. 
Fort Washington captured by the British, 

175- 
Fort Wayne, 248. 

Fort William Henry, capture of, 133. 
France, alliance with, 1S2 ; and the Jay 

treaty, 222 ; action of, during the civil 

war, 34S. 
Franklin, battle of, 342. 
Franklin, Benjamin, connection with peace 

treaty, 189 ; in Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 196, 207 ; founds a library, 3S2 ; his 

writings, 3S3. 
Franklin, State of, 265. 
Fredericksburg, 322. 
Free-Soil party, formation of, 296 ; vote in 

1S52, 299 ; merged in the Republican, 

302. 
Fremont, General John C, 286; nominated 

for President, 303. 
French, explorations of, in the West, 116, 

117; weakness and strength of, 118; 

influence of, over the Indians, 118 ; defeat 

of, by the English, 136; possessions of, 

ceded to the English, 139. 
French Louisiana, extent of, 240. 
French War, causes of, iig, 120 ; influence 

of, 144- 
Frobisher, Sir Martin, 14. 
Frolic, sloop of war, captured, 252. 
Frontenac, 121. 
Fugitive-slave law, the, 298 ; opposition to. 

299. 
Fulton, Robert, 278. 

Gage, General, sending by, of troops to 
Lexington and Concord, i66. 

Garfield, James A., wins battle of Preston- 
burg, 3x5 ; elected President, 357 ; s'not, 
357 ; death, 357. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, agitates slavery 
question, 296. 

Gates, General Horatio, defeat of Burgoyne 
by, at Bemis Heights, 180 ; defeated at 
Camden, S. C, 184. 



396 



Gates, Sir Thomas, appointed Gi 

Virginia, 27 ; wrecked on the Bermudas, 
27 ; reaches Jamestown, 28. 

General Assembly, the first, in Virginia, ;i3 ; 
influence of, 36, 

George III, statue of, 175. 

Georgia, project to settle, with distressed 
English people, 63 ; Oglethorpe attempts 
to carry out, 63 ; schemes fail, 65 ; land 
laws in, 66 ; government transferred to 
the king, 66; General Wayne in, zig. 

German immigration, 67. 

Germantown, battle of, 181. 

Gerrish, Sarah, captivity of. 145. 

Gettysburg, battle of, 322. 

Ghent, Treaty of, 262. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 14. 

Gladwin, Major, 147. 

Godfrey, Thomas, 368, 374. 

Goldsboro, 344. 

Goliad, massacre at, 2S5, 

Good-speed, the, 21. 

Gordon, Captain, 232. 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, colony brought by, 
to New England in 1602, 20 ; colony of, 
fails, 21 ; forms the Virginia Company, 
21. 

Government, free, begun in America, 33 ; 
effect of the Great Charter of Vir- 
ginia, 34. 

Government, royal, of colonies, 148 ; 
charter, 149; proprietary, 149; weakness 
of, during the Revolution, 192. 

Grant, General Ulysses S., captures Forts 
Henry and Donelson, 310 ; captures 
Vicksburg, 32S ; given full command in 
the West, 332 ; of all the Union forces, 
3;}3 ; sketch of, 334, 335 ; elected Presi- 
dent, 354 ; re-elected, 355. 

Gray, Asa, 388. 

Gray, Captain, expedition of, to China, 
293 ; entrance of, to Oregon River, 294. 

Greeley, Horace, 355. 

Green, Roger, 56. 

Greenbacks, 348. 

Greene, General Nathanael. campaign of, 
in the South, 188 ; success of, 1S9. 

Green Mountain Boys, 167, 264. 

GrenviUe, Sir Richsird, 16. 

Guerriere captured by Constitution, 252. 

Guilford Court-House, battle of, 188. 



" Hail Columbia," 224. 

Hale, John P., 299. 

Half-Moon, the, 48. 

Hamilton, General Alexander, 216, 217. 

Hampton Roads, 324. 

Hancock, General Winfield S., 356. 

Hardee, General W. J., at Missionary 
Ridge, 333. 

Hard times, the, 2S2. 

Harmer, General Josiah, defeat of, 21S. 

Harrison, Benjamin, elected President, 359; 
sketch of, 360. 

Harrison, General William Henry, 246; 
placed in command of the Northwestern 
army, 255 ; besieged at Fort Meigs, 256 ; 
message to Proctor, 256 ; recaptures De- 
troit, 258 ; battle of the Thames, 258 ; 
sketch of, 282 ; election to the presidency, 
2S2 ; death, 282. 

Harper's Ferry, 339. 

Harpelh River, 342. 

Harvard College, 206, 213. 

Harvey, Sir John, 153. 

Havana, 346. 

Hawaii, 362. 

Hawkins, Sir John, 107 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 387. 

Hayes, Rutherford B., declared President, 
356. 

Hayti, colony planted in, during Columbus's 
second voyage, 6. 

Heating, former modes of, 210. 

Hennepin, Father, 117. 

Henry VII, King, Bartholomew Columbus 
sent to, 9 ; Cabot sent out by, 10. 

Henrj', Patrick, sketch of, 161 ; connec- 
tion of, with the Revolution, 160, 161 ; 
speeches of, 162 ; death, 162 ; men- 
tioned, 214. 

Herkimer, General, gallant conduct of, at 
Oriskany, 179. 

Hessians, the, 177. 

Holmes, Oliver W., 385, 386. 

Hood, General John B., succeeds Johnston, 
334- 

Hooker, General Joseph E. , succeeds Bum- 
side, 322 ; at Lookout Mountain, 332. 

Hooker, Thomas, first settlements in Con- 
necticut, 45. 

Hopkins, Esek, 190. 

House of Representatives, igS. 



397 



Houston, General Sam, sketch of, 2S4 ; 

commander, 285 ; President of Texas, 

2S5. 
Howard, John, 232. 
Howe, Admiral Lord, comes to America, 

175- 

Howe, Elias, 369. 

Howe, General Sir William, commands 
British army, 175 ; enters Philadelphia. 
iSi. 

Howe, Lord, character of, 141 ; reforms of, 
in array, 141 ; relations of, with Ameri- 
can officers, 141. 

Hudson, Henry, search of, for China, 48 ; 
sails up the Hudson River to find the 
East Indies, 49 ; looks for China through 
Hudson Bay, 49 ; death of, 49. 

Huguenots, settlement of, in South Caro- 
lina, 56, 68; in Florida, 115. 

Hull, Captain Isaac, 251. 

Hull, General William, surrenders Detroit, 
247. 

Hunter, General David, 339. 

Hutchinson, Ann, founds a sect, 44. 

Idaho, 363. 

Illinois, admission of, to the Union, 266. 

Impressment of sailors, 243. 

Indiana, admission of, to the Union, 266. 

Indians, relations of settlers with, 17-19, 
21, 23. 25-27, 29. 35. 36, 39. 40, 5=, £4 ; 
life of, 69 ; clothing, 70 ; adornments 
of, 70 ; wampum, 70-72 ; houses, 72 ; 
furniture, 73 ; cooking. 73 ; agriculture, 
74 ; canoes, 75 ; wars, 76 ; trade of, with 
white men, 77 ; sale of New York by, 78 ; 
attempts to educate, 79 ; massacres. 80 ; 
pass-words, 82 ; weapons, 86, 87 ; strata- 
gems, 8S ; escape of captives from, 90, 
91 ; influence of the French over, iiS; 
Six Nations, 1 18 ; wars, modem, 363 ; in 
War of 1812, 24S ; trouble with, 217. 

Indigo, culture of, in the colonies, 100. 

Inscription by Boone, 233. 

" Internal improvements," 274. 

Inventions, .\merican, 376. 

Iowa admitted to the L'nion, 295. 

Ir\'ing, Washington, 3S4. 

Isabella, Queen, aids Columbus, 4. 

Island No. 10, fall of, 316. 

Italy, indemnity to, 360. 



Jack of the Feather causes a massacre, 35. 

Jackson, General Andrew, surrender to, of 
Weathersford, 262 ; seizes Pensacola. 
262 ; elected President, 272 ; character of, 
his administration, 273. 

Jackson. General Thomas J., 319; sketch 
of, 320. 

Jackson, Miss., taking of, by Grant, 32S. 

James I, King, tyranny of, lesisted in 
Parliament, 33 ; destroys \'irginia Com- 
pany, 36. 

Jamestown, first settlement of, by Virginia 
Company, 22-27 ; colony of, set out to 
return to England, 28 ; brought back 
to, by Lord De la Warr, 28 ; tobaccc 
successfully raised in, 31 ; saved by Mr. 
Pace, 36. 

Jasper. Sergeant William, defends the col- 
ors at Fort Sullivan, 1S4 ; at Savannah, 
185 ; death, 185. 

Java, the frigate, captured, 252. 

Jay, John, 222. 

Jefferson, Thomas, sketch of, 172 ; charac- 
ter, 173; mentioned, 217; elected Presi- 
dent, 228 ; dealings of, with France, 239 ; 
embargo, 244. 

Jefferson Republicans, opinions of, 306. 

Jennings, rescue of captives by, 146. 

Jersey, East, settlement in, of Scotch Pres- 
byterians, 58. 

Johnson, .^drew, 349 ; succeeds to the 
presidency, 353 ; impeachment of, 354. 

Johnson, Sir William, 133. 

Johnston, General Albert Sidney, 317; death 
of, 318. 

Johnston, General Joseph E., 313, 320 ; 
sketch of, 333. 

Johnston, Governor Robert, 151. 

Joliet, 116. 

Jones, John Paul, exploits of, during the 
Revolution, 191. 

Kanawha Valley, 339. 

Kansas, bill to organize, 301 ; collisions in, 

302 ; admission of, to the Union. 306. 
Keamy, Colonel, sent to New Mexico, 288. 
Kearsarge, the, 347. 
Keel-boat, 238. 
Kemp, theft of the Great Charter of Virginia 

by, 36- 
Kenesaw Mountain, battle of, 334. 



398 



Kentucky, meaning of name, 217 ; Boone 
settles in, 233 ; admission of, 264 ; early 
struggles in the ci%-U war, 315 ; invasion 
of, by Confederates, 327. 

Kemstown, battle at, 339. 

Key, Francis S., song by, 261. 

Kidd, Captain William, 102. 

King George's War, 127. 

King Philip's War, 82 ; his death, 83. 

King's College, 216. 

King William's War, 120. 

Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, 231. 

Know-nothing party, the, 301. 

La Fayette, Marquis de, sketch of, 181 ; as- 
sistance of, 182 ; risit, 182 ; death, 182. 

Lake Champlain, battle on, 260. 

Lake Erie, Harrison's expedition to, 257 ; 
ships built for, 257 ; battle of, 257. 

Lake George, battle of, 133 ; saying in re- 
gard to colonial troops at, 140. 

Lane, Ralph, charge in Virginia, 16; tries 
to find Pacific Ocean, 17 ; carries tobacco 
to England, 18. 

La Salle, 117, 

Lawrence, Captain James, death of, 253. 

Laws and usages in the colonies, loS-iio. 

Lederer, expedition of, 231. 

Lee, Robert E., 32c, 321 ; sketch of, 335. 

Legislatures, colonial, 149 ; character of, 

Leif, tradition concerning, in Norway, 7. 
Leisler, Captain Jacob, rebelUon of, 157 ; 

execution of, 158. 
Lewis, Captain, expedition of, 294. 
Lexington, battle of, 167. 
Lexington, Missouri, 315. 
Leyden, Pilgrims bring church to, 37. 
Liberal-Republican party, the, 355. 
Libraries, public, 372. 
Lighting, former modes of, 209. 
Lincoln, Abraham, elected President, 306 ; 

inauguration of, 309 ; second election of, 

349 ; assassination of, 350 ; sketch of, 351. 
Literature and art in the United States, 370 

et seq. 
Literature of the new republic, 207, 375 ft I 

seq. ; later, 381. 
Little Turtle, 21S. 
Livingston, Robert R., 239 ; declaration I 

240. 



Log-cabin and hard-cider campaign, 282. 

Longfellow, Henr)' W., 3S5. 

Long Island, battle of, 175. 

Lookout Mountain, 332. 

Loudon, Lord, 133. 

Louisbourg, capture of, 127; return of, to 
the French, 128 ; second siege of, 133 ; 
capture, 135 ; colonial musketeers at, 140. 

Louisiana, 117 ; purchase of settlement of, 
23S-240 ; admitted to the L'nion, 265. 

Lovewell, Captain, fight of, with the In- 
dians, 144 ; ballad about, 144. 

Lowell, James R., 3S6. 

Lucas, Miss Eliza. 100. 

Lundy's Lane, battle of, 259. 

Lynchburg threatened. 339. 

Lyon, General Nathaniel, 315. 

Macdonough, Commodore, nctory of, on 

Lake Champlain, 260. 
Macedonian, the, captured by the United 

States, 252. 
Madison, James, election of, 244 ; character 

and re-election of, 248, 249. 
Madison, Mrs., ensign of the Macedonian 

presented to, 252. 
Madoc, Prince, tradition concerning, in 

Wales, 7. 
Magellan, Fernando, sets out on expedition 

around the world, 13 ; death, 13. 
Magellan, Strait of, first entered in 1520, 

Mails, canying of, in early days, 206. 

Maine, first settlement in, 46 ; made a 
State, 46 ; admission to the Union, 266. 

Maine, destruction of the, 364. 

Manassas, battles of, 313. 321. 

Manassas, the fire-ram, 327. 

Manila, battles of, 365 et seq. 

March to the sea, 342. 

Marco Polo, birth of, i ; visit to China, 1. 

Marie .Antoinette, interest of, in American 
Revolution, 236. 

Marietta, 236. 

Marion, General Francis, 185. 

Marshall, Humphrey, 315. 

Maryland, colony planted in, by Lord Bal- 
timore, 53 ; quarrels between Catholics 
and Protestants, 54. 

Mason, James M., 346. 

Mason, John, 81. 



399 



Massachusetts, rapid growth of, 44 ; perse- 
cutions in, 44, 45. 

Massachusetts Company, charter of, 156. 

Massasoit, chief, friendly relations with, 40. 

Mataraoros, city of, in Mexican War, 2S6. 

Maumee, Warae's victory on the, 219. 

Mayflower, the, 39. 

Mayflower, the second, 236. 

McClellan, Geaeral George B., put in com- 
mand of the army. 312 ; sketch of, 318, 
321, 322. 

McDowell, General Ir\in, 313, 319, 

McKinley, William, elected, 362. 

Meade, General George G., 322. 

Medicine, early practice of, 379. 

Menendei, 115. 

Merrimac. the, 324. 

Mexicans, persistence of, 2SS. 

Mexican War, differing opinions about, 292. 

Mexico, city of, evacuated, 291. 

Mexico, treaty with, 291 ; grounds of quar- 
rel with, 2S5, 286; territory acquired 
from, 292, 293. 

Michigan admitted to the Union, 295. 

Miles, Nelson A., 367. 

Mill Sprmg, battle of, 315. 

Mills, Roger Q., 35S. 

Minnesota admitted to the Union, 306. 

Minnesota, the, 324. 

Minute-men, the, i65. 

Missionaries in California, 2S9. 

Missionary Ridge, 332. 

Mississippi, admission of, to the Union, 
266. 

Mississippi, descent of the, 232. 

Missouri, debate over the admission of, 266 ; 
admitted to the Union, 294 ; in the civil 
war, 315 ; compromise, the, 26S. 

Mitchell, John, 371. 

Murfreesboro, battle of, 329. 

Muskingum River, settlement on, 236. 

Mobile, 350. 

Modes of travel, 27S. 

Molino del Rey, battle of, 290. 

Monitor, the, 324, 325. 

Monmouth, 1S2, 

Monmouth, battle of, 183. 

Monocacy, battle of the. 339. 

Monroe, James, 239 ; sketch of, 269 ; pov- 
erty and death of, 270. 

Monroe doctrine, the, 270. 



Montana, 363. 

Montcalm, 133, 136 ; death of, 138. 

Monterey, capture of, 2S6. 

Montgomery, Confederate capital removed 

from, 313. 
Montgomery, 309. 

Montreal, surrender of, to the English, 138. 
Morgan, iSS. 
Mormonism. 363. 
Morse, S. F. B., 280. 
.Motley, John L., 388. 
Moultrie, General, 184. 
Mystic, battle with Indians at, 81. 

Napoleon Bonaparte, peace with, 224. 

Nashville, battle of, 342. 

National Road, the, 279. 

Navigation laws, the. 159. 

Navy, American, feats of, during the Revo- 
lution, 190, 191 ; deeds of infant Ameri- 
can, 230 ; neglect of, in the War of 1812, 
250 ; faith in, of its officers, 250 ; admira- 
tion of, 253. 

Na\7. British, opinion of, in 1S12, 250. 

Nebraska, bill to organize, 301, 

Nebraska Bill, scope of, 302. 

Negro suffrage, 355. 

New Albion, California called, 2S9. 

New Hampshire, settled, 46 ; first to set up a 
State government, 194 ; grants, the, 264. 

New Jersey, divided into East and West, 
58 ; reunited, 62 ; retreat of Washington 
across, 175. 

New Madrid, evacuation of, 316. 

New Market, battle at, 319. 

New Mexico, conquest of, 28S ; organized, 
299 ; territory, 363. 

New Orleans, Jackson's victory at, 262 ; 
captured by Farragut, 326. 

Newspapers in early days, 206. 

New York, Americans evacuate, 175. 

New York, college in the early days, 207, 

New York, claim of, 264. 

Niagara, the ship, 257. 

Norfolk Navy- Yard, 324. 

Norsemen, adventures and discoveries of, 7. 

North, feeling of the, about slaver}', 300 ; 
advantages of the, in the war, 312. 

Northwest passage sought, 13. 

Northwest Territory, the, 235. 

" No taxation without representation," 160. 



400 



NiM<«$ Rix«r. dkfwte aboat the. x^ 
XuUitiotkia. >>;. 

OgkdKwpe. GcoenU Junes Edvanl. teat 
vith the SpiinianiSv 13; ; sketch of, 

Otucv admtsskta of. to tbe Vnk>D, x>5 ; 
{^ktneeis o«. ^?6. 

Ohk> Riwr, descent of the. sju, 

Okeetrhchee. tattle of, a^^ 

Oklihoou. ,^j;. 

•• OW HkkvVT.- J72. 

"OM XI»n EK>iaent," the. 371. 

Opechankano. chief, bouse buik for. jsj ; 
joins in plot to nussioe settKfrs. 3;? ; sec- 
ond plot. Sd : death. Six 

Opsviuor.. battle of, 5»o. 

Oixiin»nce of E^tr-seven, the. ijgu 

Oregon, dtscowrr of the. a^ j^: dis- 
pute About. 304 : admissKtn to the Vnion, 

OiiskanT. battle of, 1 79. 
Osteihl Xloniiesto, .J04. 
Otti, JuMS. ^»lch of, tto. i6i ; grri«>g 
«atich-w««d of tbe Rewlution, ttu. 

race, file saved br an Indian bor, 35 ; sax«s 

.lamestown. j!f>. 
Pacific CVean. d«scv>Terr of the. ta. 
Pakenham. Sir EoMirani. 365. 
FaUtine». the, 07 ; treatment of, in New 

Yvvt. 67. 
Palo .\:to, battle of, 3i«. 
Faiknun, Ftancis, 5SS. 
Parliament, tbe English, cotmaercial laws 

nviide b*". 151. 
r - ' ," -, the. 101. 

■.. tbe. ,»>7, 

N . . ;- of, ,515. 

Penn. William. sl»ti:h of. 59, 60 ; Penn- 
SThraoia granled to. 60: founded Phila- 
delphia in tt&i, 61 ; rapid growth of his 
cotonr, (a. 

Pensatcote captaied. 36a. 

Pequo« War, the, Skx 

Periai^^crs. 3:iS. 

PWtT. Comroodoce OKter Hacard. at the 
battle of Lake Erie. 357; message to 
Harrisvo. 35S. 

P*fTT\iUe, battle of, 317. 



Persiec«tk«. ceasing of. 1 5„v 

Petershutg, si^e of, ^^37, ^v,;S ; capture of, 

Ptutadelphia. loss of the bv. .\mencans, 
iS» ; tecvway of. 1S3 ; capital at. 314. 

Phitatde^ia. the ii^ie. 3^«.\ 

PhiBpfii. battle of. jtt3. 

Phillips. Wendell, opintoos. 3Q&. 

Pbips. Sir William. i3.v 

l"iciett"s civaise. „«> 

PievimoDt. battle at. ,x^ 

IVice. FraoUin. sketch c^, aca; elected 
l>i«sident. 39) : fatvvs the Nebraska Bill, 

F%tims, the. distinction fiotn PuritanSs .57 : 
fieeing from Engtand to Holland, J7: de- 
cide to enugrate to escape peisecmion, 37 ; 
departure and voyage, 39; landing at 
Plymouth. 34 ; suSaings, 39; (feohngs 
with Indians, ,fo; maniMT of hoMiitg 
meetings, 41 ; defensess 41 ; ptopeity in 
common, 41 ; coiouy united with Massa- 
diusetts, 43. 

Pioneers, the race of. ^33 ; baidibood of, 

Piiates. 103 ; of Bubair, war with. 339. 
Pitt, Wilham. ij;^. 135 : his order leialing 

to .\mencan officers. 140. 
Pittsburj; Landii^. battle of. 31^ 
PUttdwtg. battle of. sco, 
IVvahootas. steaKng of. jj> ; bapdsm. jp ; 

nurriage. ,^ ; jooro^ to England. 30 -, 

death, vv 
Pw. Ed^r .\.. jsJb, 

Pi>lk. James Knox, dected President, 3S3. 
IVmof de Leon, exf^dition of, ti4. 
Pontiac's coDspitacT. 147. 
Pope. General John. 315. J5tt\ 331. 
IVipulatioD of the United States, 3cc. 36S, 

K>rter, Captain Darid. 354. 

Pott Hudson, sarxender of. 330. 

Potatoes b«v><^,t by Irish Protestants, 6S. 

Powhatan, troobte given by. to Virginia. 
313 : peace made with, jjcv 

Ptescvxt. William H,. ,^^7. 

President, the. powiers of, loS; old mode 
of decting. 537. 

Press, the, freedom of. aco. 
, Prevwst. Sir George. 350. 
I Price, tjenetal Stethng, 315. 



40I 



Prince Henry the Navigator, first sugfcsted 
discovery, 2, 

Prince of Orange, effect upon the colonists 
of liis landing in England, 157. 

Princeton, battle of, 178. 

Princeton College, 207. 

Privateers, American, during the Revolu- 
tion, igi ; in the War of 1812, 254. 

Proclamation of Emancipation, prelimina- 
ry, 325 ; final, 326. 

Proctor, General, cruelty of, 255 ; siege of 
Fort Meigs by, 255 ; defeat of, at Port 
Stephenson, 256 ; defeat of, at the 
Thames, 258. 

Prophet, the Indian, 245 ; at Tippecanoe, 
246. 

Pulaski, Count, 181, 1S4. 

Punishments, colonial, no. 

Puritans, the, peculiarities of their faith, 42 ; 
origin of the name, 42 ; in England, form 
a comjjany, 43 ; send colony to America, 
43 ; entire company of emigrants, 43 ; 
make Boston their capital, 43. 

Putnam, General Rufus, 236. 

Quakers flee from England to West Jer- 
sey, 59- 

Quebec, 116; expeditions against, 123; fall 
of, 137- 

Queen Anne's War, 125, 126. 

Railroads, introduction of, 279 ; improve- 
ments in, 2S0 ; changes produced by, 
281. 

Raisin, battle of the river, 255. 

Ralegh, Sir Walter, sketch of, 15, 16 ; 
names \'irginia, 16 ; sends colony to Ro- 
anoke under Ralph Lane, 16, 17 ; adopts 
use of tobacco brought to England by 
Lane, iS; sends colony to Roanoke under 
John White, iS, ig ; death of, ig. 

Raleigh, N. C, march to, 344. 

Rangers, 142. 

Rappahannock, the, 322. 

Readmission of seceded States, 355. 

Red Eagle, 261. 

Redemptioners, 106. 

Religion, freedom of, igg. 

Religious denominations, division of, by the 
slavery question, 305. 

" Remember 'he River Raisin ! " 255. 



Republic, life in the new, 204-214. 

Republican party, the early, 215 ; sympathy 
of, with I'rancc, 216, 227; called Demo- 
cratic, 244 ; (the present one) organized, 
302. 

Resaca de la Palma, battle of, 2S6. 

Revere, Paul, his ride, 166. 

Revolution, the, causes of, 159 ; darkest 
period of, iSi. 

Rewards for scalps, 142. 

Rice, Thomas, Sg, 

Rice-culture in the colonies, 99. 

Richmond, \'a.. Confederate capital re- 
moved to, 313. 

Rich Mountain, battle of, 313. 

Kide and lie, 205. 

Rio Grande, dispute about, 286. 

Ripley, General, 259. 

Ritlenhouse, David, 382. 

Roads, condition of, in early days, 205. 

Robertson, 236. 

Robinson, John, 37. 

Rochambeau, i8g. 

'* Rock of Chickamauga," the, 332. 

Rogers, Major Robert, daring exploits of, 
142, 143. 

Rogers's slide, 143. 

Rolfe, John, marries Pocahontas, 30; cul- 
tivates tobacco, 31, gg. 

Rosecrans, General W. S., at Corinth, 327 ; 
succeeds Buell, 331. 

Round Head wears Tecumseh's decoration, 
248. 

Sacramento River, gold found in, 2g7. 
St. Augustine, Fla., founding of, 115. 
St. Clair, General Arthur, evacuates Ticon- 

deroga, i7g; defeated, 2ig. 
Salem, witchcraft in, 112. 
Salmon Falls, attack on, 122. 
Samoset addres es Pilgrims in English, 40. 
Sampson, William T., 366. 
Sandys, Sir Edwin, :iji. 
Santa Anna, war with, in Mexico, 2S5 ; at 

Cerro Gordo, :go. 
Santiago, battles at, 367. 
Saratoga, condition of fire-arms at, ig2. 
Sassacus, 81. 
Savannah, Ga., capture of, 1S4; captured 

in the civil war, 343. 
Schenectady, destruction of, 121, 122. 



402 



Schofield, General John M., 343, 344. 
Schuyler, Peter, expedition against Canada, 
124 ; carries Mohawk chief to England, 

125- 

Science, study of, 3R1, 388. 

Scott, General Winfield, 259; in Mexican 
War, 2S7 ; expedition to Mexico, 250 ; 
sketch of, 291 ; candidate for President, 
299. 

Scrooby, Pilgrim church at, 37. 

Secession, ordinance of, passed in South 
Carolina, 307 ; different views of, 311. 

Sedition law, 225. 

Seminole Indians, war against, 297. 

Semmes, Captain Raphael, 347. 

Senate, the, igS. 

Serapis, the, igi. 

Seven Days' battles, 321. 

Sevier, John, 236. 

Sewing-machines, 369. 

Seymour, Horatio, 354. 

Shatter, William R., 367. 

Shannon, the, 253. 

Sheridan, General Philip H., sketch of, 
341 ; death, 341. 

Sherman, General W. T., commands in the 
West, 333 ; sketch of, 343. 

Shiloh, battle of, 317. 

Shirley, Governor, 127. - 

Sigel, General Franz, 339. 

Simms, William G., 387. 

Skenesborough, 179. 

Slavery, declared illegal in Massachusetts, 
113; the, question, 263; in politics, 295, 
296 ; effect of war on, 352. 

Slaves, introduction of, 106; character of 
African, 107 ; insurrections of, 107 ; In- 
dian, 108 ; sold to Rarbadoes, S3 ; to 
West Indies, 85 ; bringing of, into United 
States forbidden, 267. 

Slave-trader, the first English, 107. 

Slidell, John, 346. 

Smith, Captain John, sketch of, 24 ; capt- 
ured by Indians, 25 ; story of rescue of, 
by Pocahontas, 25 ; exploration by, of 
Chesapeake Bay and coast north of Cape 
Cod, 26 ; made governor, 26 ; map by, 
referred to, 39 ; map and letters sent by, 
to Henry Hudson, 48. 

Smith, James, return of, from Indian cap- 
tivity, 146. 



Smuggling, 152. 

Soldiers of 1812, character of the, 249. 

South, the, traits of, in early days, 211 ; 
feeling of, about slavery, 300 ; advantages 
of, in the war, 312. 

Southampton, Earl of, character of, and 
connection with the Great Charter of 
Virginia, 33. 

South Carolina, rebellion of, against lords- 
proprietors, 158. 

Southwest, discontent in, 241. 

Spain refuses to sell Cuba, 300 ; war. 363. 

Spaniards in Florida, 114, 127. 

Specie payments, resumption of, 349. 

" Spirits," 105. 

Spotswood, Governor, character of, 151, 

231- 

Spottsylvania Court-House, 336. 

Squanto teaches settlers to plant Indian 
corn, 40. 

" Squatter sovereignty," 302. 

Stamp Act, the, 159; repealed, 163. 

Standish, Captain Myles, commands Plym- 
outh Colony, 40 ; attacks the Indians, 40 ; 
escorts ministers, 41. 

Stark, General John, defeats the British at 
Bennington, 179. 

"Star-Spangled Banner," song. 261. 

State charters, claims of, and ceding of, to 
General Government, 235. 

State-rights doctrine, the, 307. 

State sovereignty, effect of war on, 35. 

States, origin of the, 194 ; early relations 
to one another, 195 ; claims, 195 ; num- 
ber of, 362 ; new ones admitted, 362, 
363- 

Steamboats, the first, 278, 

Steuben, Baron, 181. 

Stone River, battle of, 329. 

" Stonewall " Jackson, sketch of, 320. 

Stony Point, capture of, 183 ; storming of, 
219. 

Stowe. Harriet B., 387. 

Stuart, Gilbert, 389. 

Stuyvesant, Peter, 50. 

Sumter, Fort, attack on, 30S. 

Sumter, General Thomas, 185. 

Supreme Court, the, 198. 

Surrender of Lee, 345 ; of Johnston, 

345- 
Susan Constant, the, 21. 



INDEX. 



403 



Swamp-fight, the, 82, 

*' Swamp-Fox," the, 185, 1S6. 

Swedes, colony of, on Delaware Riv 



50. 



Tariif question, the, 35S, 359. 

Tarleton, Colonel Banastre, 1S8. 

Taxes, opposition to, 164. 

Taylor, General Zachary, 248 ; in the Mexi- 
can War, 285 ; sketch of, 297 ; elected 
President, 296. 

Teach, Edward, 103. 

Tecumseh, claim of, 245 ; confederacy of, 
245 ; battle with, 246 ; as British briga- 
dier-general, 24S ; at the siege of Fort 
Meigs, 255 ; death, 258. 

Telegraph, the electric, invention of, 280; 
first line of, 281 ; changes produced by, 
23 1, 369. 

Tennessee, admission of, into the Union, 
265 ; the war in, 329. 

Terrapin policy, 2.^4. 

Territories, question of slavery in the, 295 ; 
remaining, 371. 

Texas, proposed annexation of, 2S4 ; revo- 
lution in, 2S5 ; admitted to the Union, 
2S5 ; boundary disputed, 2S6 ; political 
result of annexation, 295. 

Thames, battle of the, 258. 

Thomas, General George H., 315 , at Mur- 
freesboro, 331 ; at Chickamauga, 332. 

Thoroughfare Gap. 321. 

Ticonderoga, defeat of the English at, 136 ; 
surrender of, to Ethan Allen, 16S, 169 ; 
evacuation of, by General St. Clair, 179. 

Tilden, Samuel J., 355. 

Tippecanoe, the battle of, 246. 

Titles, questions about, 214. 

Tobacco, brought into England, 18; thought 
medicinal, 18 ; called a "weed, "31 ; used 
for money, 31, 99 ; pipes for, made of nut- 
shells and straws, 18. 

Trade of colonial cities, 102. 

Traveling, early modes of, 204, 205. 

Treaty of Paris, 189; with Mexico, 291. 

Trent affair, the, 346, 

Trenton, battle of, 177. 

Tribute, abolition of, 230. 

Tripoli, Pasha of, 229. 

Tyler, John, administration of, 2S3 ; Presi- 
dent of the Peace Convention, 307. 

Type-writer, the, 369. 



" Uncle Tom's Cabin," effect of, 300. 
United States, 172; growth of, 266. 
United States, the frigate, captures the 

Macedonian, 252. 
Utah, 363. 

Valley Forge, winter-quarters at, iSi. 

Valley of Virginia in the civil war, 319. 

Van Buren, Martin, sketch of, 276 ; elected 
President, 277 ; connection of, with hard 
times, 2S2 ; renominated and defeated, 
296. 

Van Dom, General Earl, attacks Corinth, 
327. 

Vasco da Gama, expedition of, 11. 

Vera Cruz, army landed at, 289 ; captured, 
290. 

Vermont admitted to the Union, 263. 

Verrazano, voyage and claim of, 115. 

Vespucius, Americus, birth of, 8 ; voyages 
of, to South America, S ; descriptions of 
country by, 8 ; name wrongly bestowed, 
S.9- 

Vicksburg, 316. 

Victoria, the, first voyage around the world 
made by, 13. 

Vincennes, capture of, 193. 

Virginia, early English name for the whole 
coast of North America, 16 ; first settle- 
ment in, 16, 17; second, iS, 19; first 
white child born in, ig ; third colony to, 
20-32 ; Great Charter in, 32, :^^^ ; com- 
munity of life in, 32 ; division of land in, 
34; sending of women to, 34; Indian 
troubles in, 35 ; Company of, dissolved, 
36 ; further division of land in, 52. 

Virginia, the, 324. 

Wagons, Conestoga, 205. 

Walker, William, expeditions of, and 
death, 303. 

Wallace, General Lew, 339. 

War of i8r2, causes of, 242, 243 ; declared, 
246 ; pioneers of, 254. 

Washington, George, embassy of, to the 
French, 128 ; connection with Braddock, 
130-132 ; sketch of, 169-171 ; given com- 
mand of the army, 171 ; causes the Brit- 
ish to evacuate Boston, 171 ; retreat of, 
from Long Island, 175; condition of the 
army, 176 ; crosses the Delaware and de- 



404 



(eats the Hessians, 177; recrosses, 177; 

at Valley Forge, 181 ; resigns command 

of the array, 190 ; elected President, 200 ; 

death, 220. 
Washington, State of, 363. 
Washington, city of, burned by the British, 

260. 
Washita, battle of the, 364. 
Wasp, sloop-of-war, captures the Frolic, 

252. 
Wayne, General Anthony, 219. 
Weathersford, 261. 
Webster, Daniel, traits and doctrines of, 

275, 276. 
West, Benjamin, 389. 
West, emigrants to the, 236. 
West Indies, first seen, 6. 
West Virginia, loss of, by the South, in the 

war, 312. 
Whig party, rise of the, 273, 274 ; secession 

from, 296 ; decay of, 301. 
Whisky rebellion, the, 220. 
White, John, Governor of Ralegh's second 

colony, 18. 
White, W,, rescue of white captives by, 

146. 
Whitman, Walt, 3S6. 
Whitney, Eli, 36S. 
Whittier, John G., 385. 



Wilderness, battles of the, 336. 

Wilkes, Captain Charles, 346. 

William 111, King, charter from, in 1692, 42 

William and Mary College, 206. 

Williams, Roger, banishment of, for his 
faith, 45 ; founds Rhode Island, 45. 

Williamsburg, battle of, 319, 

Wilmington, N. C, 344. 

Wilmot Proviso, the, 296. 

Wilson's Creek, battle of, 315. 

\^'incheste^, battle of, 340. 

Winchester, General James, defeat of, 255. 

Winthrop, John, chosen Governor of Puri- 
tan Colony, 43 ; sketch of, 44, 

Winthrop, John, the younger, made Gov- 
ernor of Connecticut, 44. 

Wisconsin admitted to the Union, 295. 

Witchcraft, charms against, in ; in Salem, 
112. 

Wolfe, General James, 137 ; death of, 138. 

■Wright, Silas, 281. 

Writs of assistance, 159. 

Wyoming, State of, 363. 

Vale College, 207. 

Yeardley, Sir George, 34. 

Yorktown, Va., battle of, 189 ; siege of, 319. 

ZoUikoffer, General F. K., 315. 



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Resources, Products, People, Opportunities for 
Business, etc. By Frederick A. Ober, author of 
"Camps in the Caribbees," "Crusoe's Island," 
etc. With Map and Illustrations. i2mo. Cloth, 
$1.50. 

"You have brought together in a small space an immense 
amount of most valuable information, which it is very impor- 
tant to have within the reach of the American people at this 
time." — Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge. 

"An orderly and intelligent account of the island. Mr. 
Ober's book is both timely and trustworthy." — Ne'o: York 
Evening Post. 

"The best authoritative and ' eyewitnessing' book on this 
subject yet printed. . . . Mr. Ober describes in a definite, 
practical way its commercial, strategic, agricultural, financial, 
political, and geographical features, and furnishes just the 
information sought for bv intending settlers." — Boston Globe. 



D. A PPL ETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 



THE STORY OF THE WEST SERIES. 

Edited by RIPLEY HITCHCOCK. 

Each, illustrated, J2mo, cloth, $1,50. 
The Story of the Soldier. 

Hy General G. A. Forsvth, U. S. Army (retired). Illustrated by R. 

F. Zogbaum. 
"General Forsyth knows whereof he writes, and his book should be read by all 
who wish to acquaint themselves with the constructive work of the American army, 
nr who are interested in its cliaracter and history." — The Outlook. 

The Story of the Railroad. 

By Cy Warman, author of " The Express Messenger," etc. With Maps 
and many Illustrations by B. West Clinedinst and from photographs. 
" ' The Story of the Railroad ' brings one into touch with all the forces and condi- 
tions that worked for or against the thin line of rails which crept westward, and .Mr. 
Warman may be fairly said to have drawn upon all the sources from \\ hich elements 
needed in his picture could be obtained. The result is a general view of characteristic 
phases of the hfe which has a completeness from the standpoint of human interest 
not realized before." — Boston Herald. 

The Story of the Cowboy. 

By E. HiilGH, author of " The Singing Mouse Stories," etc. Illustrated 

by William L. Wells and C. M. Russell. 
"Mr. Hough is to be thanked for having written so excellent a book. The cowboy 
story, as this author has told it, will be the cowboy's fitting eulogy. This volume will 
be consulted in years to come as an authority on past conditions of the far West. 
For (ine literary work the author is to be highly comjjlimented. Here, certainly, we 
have a choice piece of writing." — New York limes. 

The Story of the Mine. 

As illustrated by the Great Conistock Lode of Nevada. By Charles 
Howard Shinn. 
"Mr. Shinn writes from ample personal acquaintance with his subject— such 
acquaintance as could only be gained by familiarity with the men and the places de- 
scribed, by repeated conversati'ins w-ith the suivivors of the early mining adventures 
in the Sierras and the Rockies, and by the fullest appreciation of the pervading spirit 
of the Western mining camps of yesterday and to-day. Thus his book has a dis- 
tinctly human interest, apart from its value as a treatise on things material." — Review 
of Reviews. 

The Story of the Indian. 

By George Bird Grinnell, author of "Pawnee Hero Stories," "Black- 
foot Lodge Tales," etc. 
" Unly an author qualified by personal experience cnuld offer us a profitable study 

of a ra;e so alien from our own as is the Indian m thought, feeling, and culture. 

Only long association with Indians can enable a white man measiwably to comprehend 

their thoughts and enter into their feelings. Such association has been Mr. Grinnell's." 

—New York Sun. 

V>. .APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 



GREAT COMMANDERS SERIES. 

Each, 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $1^0. 

A Series of Brief Biographies of Illustrious Americans. 
Edited by General JAMES GRANT WILSON. 



This series forms one of the most notable collections of books that has been 
published for many years. The success it has met with since the first volume 
was issued, and the widespread attention it has attracted, indicate that it has 
satisfactorily fulfilled its purpose, viz., to provide in a popular form and mod- 
erate compass the records of the lives of men \iho have been conspicuously 
eminent in the great conflicts that established American independence and 
maintained our national integrity and unity. Each biotrraphy has been wiitten 
by an author especially well qualified for the task, and the result is not only a 
series of fascinating stories of the lives and deeds of great men, but a rich mine 
of valuable information for the student of American history and biography. 

The volumes of this series thus far issued, all of which have received the 
highest commendation from authoritative journals, are: 

Admiral Farragut By Captain A. T. MAir.\N, U. S. N. 

General Taylor By General O. O. Howard, U. S. A. 

General Jackson By James Parton. 

General Greene By General Francis V. Greene, U. S. A. 

General J. E. Johnston - - - - By Robert M. Hughes, of Virginia. 

General Thomas By Henry Coppee, LL. D. 

General Scott By General Marcus J. Wright. 

General Washington By General Bradley T. Johnson. 

General Lee By General F'itzhugh Lee- 

General Hancock By General Francis A. Walker. 

General Sheridan By General Henry E. Davies. 

General Grant By General James Grant Wilson. 

General Sherman By General Manning F. Force. 

Commodore Paul Jones By Cyrus Townsend Brady. 

General Meade By Isaac R. Pennvpacker. 

In preparation. 

General McClellan By General Peter S. Michie. 

Admiral Porter By J.^mes R S .lev, late Assistant Secretary U. S. Navy. 

General Forrest By Captiin J. Harvey Mathes. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. 



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